Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity. As previous speakers have said, it is not my area but the concerns belong to all of us. I have serious concerns that this is developer driven. I will come back to that in relation to Sceirde off the coast of Connemara.

It has to be welcomed that we have a plan. However, that plan is being done in a vacuum where only 9% of our marine areas are protected. I understand Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, expressed his frustration and disappointment only two days ago at the failure to progress the marine protection plan - the specific name escapes me - to have marine protected areas. We have 9%. We were promised that simultaneously with the other plan on which this is based. Nothing has happened. That is a great cause for concern. Our sea mass is seven times our land mass. It is our greatest asset.

My concern is, not alone is the plan in a vacuum but we are now proceeding with the exact same developer-led industrial model where we will keep growing without any concept that that very model has led us to the precipice and led us to declare a climate and biodiversity emergency back in 2019. I am all for growth and for sustainable growth and I am absolutely behind renewable energy, but this is a frightening concept, that the same market approach is being taken and big profit-driven developers are now determining which part of our seas will be used, where the wind farms will go and we have no idea. This is the first attempt to set out a plan in a vacuum. There is also, as I understand it, no economic, social and economic assessment of the fishermen in the area and the effect this project will have on their livelihoods. Has that been done? If not, when will it be done? Why has it not been done?

I have no idea why the marine protected area legislation did not go ahead. I understand the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan's frustration. You are the Government. He talks about it being complex. It certainly is complex. Our oceans are complex. They are vital to the future direction of where we go. If we go with the same model that has led us to the precipice of destruction, we are in serious trouble here, looking at the first map that is coming in. In the meantime Sceirde, off the coast of Carna in Connemara, is planning an offshore wind farm. The term "offshore" is completely misleading because it is 5 km from the shore near. "Nearshore" might be a better term for it. It is utterly developer-led.

A memo went to Údarás na Gaeltachta with the usual type of empty rhetoric we get, such as that there will be jobs, there will be things for the community and there will be a community benefit. I do not trust big developers. I do not trust the company behind this. It is an Australian company, a huge asset management company that is leading the development off the coast of Carna. How do we let that happen? Have we learned nothing at all? Deputy Shanahan talked about turbines. On the map for Carna, the turbines are three times the size of the Eiffel Tower, just 5 km from the shore. Calling that offshore is a misnomer. I understand it is to power 350,000 houses. Surely we have learned that we cannot go down the road of big business. Companies are entitled to make a profit but community must be based in the solution, not a divide and conquer situation like the Shell to Sea campaign where we throw a few euro at GAA clubs, soccer clubs and various clubs. There must be a long-term investment for the community to bring the community on board. I have no idea why the turbines have to be three times the size of the Eiffel Tower. I could say I have no idea why the Government is not balancing this, but I should not say that; I do actually have an idea.

I am disappointed that the Government is not balancing this; it is David and Goliath. There is no way people on the ground can cope with the expertise these companies have and fight that battle. I want to be on the side of green and renewables - I am, but I have the most serious concerns about what is happening in a vacuum not just with the plan, with no marine protected areas, but with what is happening off the coast of Carna. I will find myself in a very difficult position because I can see no justification for turbines so high and near the shore with no plan whatsoever and no guarantee of what ownership we or the people of Connemara will have so that they can be part of the change for a new Ireland.

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