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

Does the Minister of State agree a convenient grid connection will lead to many applications for solar farms at a particular location? As a result of that, a whole region could be converted into a super solar farm. Does the Minister of State agree there should be guidelines in place nationally to ensure this does not happen? If you live in an area with nothing but grey glass as far as the eye can see, surely that is not desirable, particularly when there are so many roofs of farm and community buildings all over the country that are sitting there waiting to be converted to this use.

Another issue in my part of the country is that these solar farms could lead to flooding because the soakage of water that flows off them is concentrated in rivulets which can cause flooding. My God, my town had its fair share of that this time last year. Time is running short in this Government's cycle, but I ask that the Department would have a serious look at this because it is growing very quickly

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