Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)

I know the Minister of State mentioned public consultation but many people do not take that seriously because their experience of public consultations is that they have not been respected. Constituents from north Offaly where there are issues with sound have contacted me. They have to move livestock in their fields. These people feel they are not listened to. If we are talking about public consultation, the number one priority is that it has to be meaningful. The second thing is that we have to ensure that communities are respected and protected and that we do not have instances where this infrasound issue is allowed to go on and on, which, unfortunately, has happened.

I have raised the issue of wind energy repeatedly through parliamentary questions, most recently to the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment when I asked him whether he would provide information regarding reports on wind turbine noise. I also asked him to clarify his support for increased protection of persons affected by the noise. Rather astonishingly, the Minister admitted to me that the EPA had not commissioned any wind turbine modelling reports and that the only report the SEAI had published on the subject of wind turbine noise was an examination of the significance of noise. A lot more needs to be done on this issue.

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