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

On the Minister's last point, we have approached Cork County Council collectively at a local level and it is saying that without national guidelines, it will not amend its development plan in terms of governing regulations around the erection of solar farms. There is a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation here. The council is saying it will not implement anything about solar development in its development plan. The Minister is saying this evening that it is up to the council to incorporate that into its development plan. The council has already told us locally it is not open to amending it without direction nationally.

I support the point made by Deputy O'Connor. On some of the land he is talking about, with which I share a border, somebody could build a solar farm 100, 200 or 300 acres in size but would struggle to get planning permission for a one-off house or agricultural shed. It is that stark in terms of the development that can and cannot happen there. At this stage, we need to be genuine with people. In the absence of regulation and guidelines, we must stop fooling people. I welcome that there will a scoping exercise but it sounds like it will take an awfully long time. We need to implement guidelines urgently.

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