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

First, I wish to express my condolences to the family of Patrick Gerard Murphy in west Cork. We are actually laying him to rest tomorrow morning. He would have been good friends with many of us here from Cork in particular, especially myself and Deputy Seamus McGrath in that we would have soldiered together on the council with him. He will be sorely missed.

As the Taoiseach knows, Patrick Gerard would have had an expertise in planning, particularly one-off housing and rural planning, but he would have believed in sustainable planning. The issue I want to raise with the Taoiseach today pertains to planning, particularly large-scale solar farms across east Cork and north Cork. From listening to other Deputies across the House, obviously, energy prices are spiralling, and people might think it is a bit silly of me to be raising it in this context. I am not saying in any way, shape or form that I am against any type of large-scale solar farm, but what I am asking for is that guidelines would be in place. At the moment, we have local authorities operating in the absence of guidelines, with nothing in their development plans and nothing to put structure around what are large-scale strategic applications for planning. I am asking that the Government puts this issue to the fore and consider introducing guidelines.

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