Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is giving me awful flashbacks to sleepless nights. If I do not get one tonight, I will know he has jinxed me. I thank him very much for raising this important issue. He does not need to tell me or anyone in this Government about listening to people. His language suggested that he listens and the rest of us do not. That is unfair to people who listen to communities all of the time. I am listening to the communities here today. I am also being honest with them, as I am sure the Deputy is as well. Renewable energy is needed. I do not believe there is anyone in the Gallery who is suggesting it is not.

What I said was not about wind turbines. I said that the climate emergency is not divided between rural and urban areas. Regrettably, there is sometimes a real effort in this House to suggest that it is, although I am not necessarily saying the Deputy was making such an effort today, and that the climate emergency is an idea from those people up in Dublin. The climate emergency is very real. I was at Lough Funshinagh in rural County Roscommon and have seen the very serious and difficult situation people are facing there. That is the point I am making. When it comes to the climate emergency, we need to try to bring communities with us and to help because we want to protect those families. We want that baby who is struggling to sleep at night to have a community and a planet to inherit. That is why we are all here. That is why we all come to work every day.

We are listening and we are going to revise the 2006 wind guidelines once and for all. I have outlined the process we are undertaking to allow us to do that. I am pleased that the process is finally advancing well.

The Climate Action Plan 2024, which the Cabinet approved literally only a couple of hours ago, contains an annex of actions - this is for the benefit of the people in the Gallery - that says what we are going to do this year. There is a specific action which states that we are going to finalise the revised wind guidelines for publication in the quarter 4 of this year. When the guidelines are published, there will be a further opportunity for Deputy O'Donoghue's constituents and the people in the 20 counties that are represented in the Gallery to have their say on them. This will be done by means of further public consultation and input. We will publish draft guidelines and we will give people an opportunity to have their say. The Department of housing will lead on that. I am happy, as are my colleagues, to have engagement with Community Environmental Protection Alliance, CEPA, and with others who have an interest in this matter. Let us try to get it right once and for all this year.

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