Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister. I am aware of the scheme he outlined and the number of farmers who have availed of it. It is a very good scheme. The designation of land, land use policy and so on is really a matter for the Minister for local government, but one of the reasons Deputy O'Connor raised this matter with the Minister for agriculture is its potential impact on farming, particularly the dairy sector in the part of the world the Deputy and I represent. We are seeing large solar farm proposals now in the absence of any guidelines or any instruction from the Government. The Minister has said it is in the programme for Government that we will be bringing forward guidelines. They cannot come soon enough. There is concern that some communities are being swamped by these.

Nobody here is saying we do not need solar farms. They are indisputably part of what we need to do in generating energy for the future. However, the nature of the developments is erratic and concerns are being expressed by communities, particularly in my own parish of Knockraha into James O’Connor's area of Leamlara and Lisgoold. There are multiple applications. These farms are transforming the landscape from largely agricultural to what we would argue is a commercial enterprise.

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