James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I express my gratitude that this topic has been selected for discussion. It is incredibly important. It relates to the rapid development of solar across my constituency and in Cork North-Central and Cork South-Central. This is about what I see as the wholesale changing of the function of agricultural lands in my constituency and their use as solar farms. We are starting to see what these solar farms look like, with the developments that have already taken place in Midleton, and how they change the landscape.

I will run through a number of serious concerns I have in a few different areas. This evening, a public meeting will be held in the Killeagh and Inch parish on what will become one of the largest solar farms in the country. This will involve the change of use of lands from dairy, including one of the largest dairy farms in the country, to solar. I am told by those with whom we have engaged in the community that substation infrastructure has been put in place to handle approximately 2,500 acres of solar in that area. I raise this because this development is not designed to accompany an existing industry or incorporate the residential or commercial power needs of a local area in a sustainable way. This is commercial electricity production that involves, in my view, the transitioning of land away from agriculture towards solar production and the removal of the agricultural facet of that land.

In case people are unaware of how this works, companies will come in and take the land for leases in excess of two or three decades. This involves the complete transition of the land, which will not have any livestock on it. There was some discussion around using it for sheep but my understanding from the people I have engaged with is that this can cause some difficulty in relation to electrics, wires and maintenance. It involves, therefore, the complete removal of livestock and tillage from those lands and their use for solar. In the Cork East constituency this is happening on a scale that is extremely concerning.

Given what is happening in my constituency, I feel that the return from the circular economy is incredibly poor. Dairy farming, beef production and tillage would keep employment in the local area in veterinary, healthcare, farm relief, agricultural aggregate sales such as fertiliser and animal fields, machinery sales and all the professions that come with operating an operational farm involving livestock and tillage. I could go on because the list is as long as my arm. It creates huge employment and that is before we even get to processors, such as Dairygold or Tirlán, formerly Glanbia, the Kerry Group and Ornua, and the thousands of people employed by those processors, not only in my constituency but in other rural areas. If what is happening in east Cork is allowed to continue, it could lead to devastating consequences for the dairy industry. Nobody seems to be picking up on this.

Farming needs to stand up for itself and so do the commentators. Solar is not farming. It is commercial electricity production. Someone has to come in here and say that. I am in favour of rooftop solar. I am also in favour of small portions of land, whether it is 10 acres or 20 acres of a holding, being used for solar on dairy farms as a supplementary income to farmers and to give income stability. I do not support hundreds of acres - up to 1,000 acres with some projects that have been proposed and discussed in excess of 1,000 acres - being used for wholesale transition away from agricultural use to commercial electricity. The State needs to do something about it urgently.

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