Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)

It is so inconsistent with Fine Gael politics and policy that it is inconceivable that anybody in the party or connected with it could have written the motion.

The Government proposal refers to the "potential for the development of privately owned grid solutions". The Fianna Fáil Party does not support a private grid, as we were accused of doing in the early days of the pylon controversy. A huge mistake was made in the case of Eircom and it is about time the lessons were learned from that.

The motion calls for a review of the criteria for "individuals and entities lodging objections or submissions to planning applications". It also calls for a greater alignment of the "range of permissions and authorisations required for renewable energy projects". This could be interpreted in two ways, first, as an undertaking to make it easier for people to object, even though it is already relatively easy to do so, or, alternatively, as a statement of intent by the Government to make it more difficult.