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

I support Deputy Dolan as well. I spoke about solar guidelines previously. It has to be said again that is taking an extreme amount of time to get these guidelines updated. I am here since 2020. I have spoken about this a dozen times at this stage. We have been led to believe that these guidelines are being updated or imminent. The Minister is giving us an update on the progress in relation to that. As I said, it seems to take an extreme amount of time. They are much anticipated and long awaited. Whether it is solar or wind, the only conclusion I can draw is that we seem to be putting things on the long burner. The only conclusion I can draw is that is being done by design by the Department to allow a number of applications. I am surprised to hear there are that many applications in one part of Galway. I thought that we had a heavy number of applications in my part of the country, but nothing comparable to Deputy Dolan's. We seem to do things very slowly. They seem to take an awful long time. I met the industry a number of weeks ago in relation to this. The industry wants these guidelines updated because it wants people to be aware of what is happening and it wants it done transparently. I echo the calls of Deputy Dolan to get this done urgently.

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