David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response, but I put it to him that the development of large-scale - I am talking about hundreds of acres - solar farms is very new. While we have national guidelines on the production of renewable energy that seem to dictate planning guidelines, there are no guidelines on large-scale solar farms. This involves the transformation of whole townlands and tracts of land. As far as the eye can see they are turning grey. Is it not about time the Government went beyond reviewing this and took action to balance this with the issue of production of renewable energy, which we are all in favour of? Does the Minister of State agree that there are many other options, such as roofs of farm buildings, which could be used for solar panels, rather than turning good arable land into wasteland, if you will, in that it can never be used again for growing food, at a time when there may be food and forage scarcity.

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