Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I congratulate the Green Party on putting down this motion and allowing us contribute to the debate on it.

I listened with intent to the various issues raised by Senator Coffey, one of which I raised some years ago concerning hydro generation at local authority level. Local authorities, along with the Office of Public Works, own and control the majority of rivers and lakes throughout the country and that presents them with a golden opportunity. There is no doubt that in some cases they would need assistance but many local authorities could use hydro generation, if only to cover the cost of public lighting in the various local authority areas. Some local authorities have access to major waterfalls and rivers in mountainous areas and elsewhere that would allow them do that. This is an area the Minister should examine.

All of the other aspects have been mentioned by various Senators, whether it is geothermal energy, solar panels or whatever. In that regard, we have not grasped the nettle. There is much scope for improvement in the technology and moving forward with pace. We have fallen behind the rest of Europe in many of those areas and while I commend the Green Party on pushing this agenda, its partners in Government said here on a number of occasions it would take a different route, but the Green Party has pulled it back to the middle of the road, so to speak, in regard to this type of technology.

Planning permission exemptions were granted some years ago for windmills for domestic houses but nothing has happened since. I do not see many, if any, windmills erected around the countryside. There is scope for progress in that regard.

I am delighted the Minister of State is present because he is a practical, hands-on Minister. I want to raise an issue concerning a planning application for the erection of a 100 MW electricity power generation station and all associated site works and services at the former Asahi site near Killala, outside Ballina. The planning permission was appealed to An Bord Pleanála and was refused mainly because of the interpretation of Government policy. This is an area of Government policy the Minister should examine because the reasons for the refusal were as expressed in the White Paper, Delivering a Sustainable Energy Future for Ireland — The Energy Policy Framework 2007 — 2020, which envisages that electricity generation from peat in existing peat burning power stations will reduce over time and, as expressed in the National Climate Change Strategy 2007-2012, supports the co-firing of biomass with peat in existing power generation stations in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from existing peat stations. I attended a public meeting recently and none of the parties represented is against this application. There were one or two objections but none of the major parties in Mayo is against this move.

One of the main issues concerns bogs. The bogs in north Mayo where this is based are owned by Bord na Mona or Coillte and were drained 40 or 50 years ago. If virgin bogs were to be drained it would create a carbon sink, which would release CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, but all of the bogs to which I refer have been drained and there is peat in them that will last for the next 100 years. This development, which would cost approximately €200 million, is based on that. The plant would be a mixture of 35% peat and 55% wood. In the long term, most of the wood would come from Coillte as well as being grown locally. Two hundred jobs would be created in the construction of the development and 80 jobs would be retained at the power station. It would use approximately €15 million worth of peat and wood and would entail cheap processing of steam which would be used for local industries. The development has many advantages. They are talking only about the bogs that have been drained already, and not virgin bogs. I beg the Cathaoirleach's indulgence to further the point. These bogs have been drained. Could the peat be extracted from them and burned in the midlands? I believe it could and if that is the case, why can it not be used and processed locally? This is where the conflict arises in the Government policy.

It would be a shame if a project like this were turned down at a time when Mayo or north Mayo is not getting any projects. This is a massive project costing €180 million. Permission has been refused because of conflicts with Government policy but there is no conflict among the political parties within the county. The permission was appealed to An Bord Pleanála by one or two local groups. I hope the Minister will examine the issue.