Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

I stand here today to defend the landscape and future of Galway East. We all understand the necessity of the energy transition and we know we must move forward with renewables but what is happening in my constituency right now is not a transition but an invasion. It is an unregulated chaotic industrialisation of the Irish countryside on a scale that is terrifying. A perfect storm of development is gathering over our communities. We are facing proposals for 27 separate wind farms in north Galway. We are looking at a solar farm spanning almost 1,000 acres on fine arable land. In Athenry, we have a proposal for the Cashla peaker plant. In Portumna, we are staring down the barrel of a gas plant with a stack height the size of Croke Park, a fossil fuel giant dropped into the heart of a rural community. If all these projects get the green light, our county will be unrecognisable. We will no longer be a place of villages, farms and families; we will be an industrial energy park for the national grid.

We are still judging wind farm applications based on guidelines from 2006, which were written when the turbines were half the height they are today. That is an abject failure of policy. Furthermore, we have no specific planning guidelines for solar farms. This is coming across to the public as if it is a free-for-all.

My questions are simple and I need the best answers possible. I need to know when my constituents can expect the wind energy guidelines to be finally updated to reflect the modern reality. I am talking about setback distances. I am talking about noise management. I am talking about reassuring communities that wind energy can be done in a responsible and plan-led way. Does the Government plan to introduce robust solar energy guidelines to stop what is currently haphazard sprawl?

We want to do our bit, but we in Galway East cannot be sacrificed for the betterment of the national grid.

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