Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. This is an important debate and I am delighted to contribute to it. Senator Tony Mulcahy is our energy spokesman but he is unavoidably delayed. The Seanad is playing its part in inviting an international conference on wind energy and renewable energy to Dublin Castle on 21 and 22 June. We will have further opportunity to discuss it with various interests, including MEPs from across Europe and the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, who is the guest speaker. Today, we will focus on wind energy and planning but we must also concentrate on why we need wind energy and good guidelines and regulations to ensure that what we put in place ensures outcomes and results, such as reducing our dependency on fossil fuel imports, ensuring investment in the network and delivering investor certainty through predictable response of regulatory policies. It must be responsive to the needs of the community and the commercial people out there who will invest money in it on the ground. Energy-related emissions account for almost 80% of the EU greenhouse gas emissions. The vast majority of energy consumed on the island of Ireland, 90%, is imported. We are highly dependent on imports. In cash terms, that amounts to €7 billion a year or €1 million leaving the shores of Ireland every hour. If we are targeting self-sufficiency, renewable energy and a reduction in greenhouse gas, we must be mindful of making regulations to ensure we can build towards self-sufficiency.

The Government renewable energy strategy launched in May 2012 outlines 36 specific recommendations. In terms of the 2020 renewable energy target, we are at 630 MW. We must achieve the 2020 renewable electricity targets because we do not have a way out. We will pay dearly if we do not achieve them.

Non-achievement will result in compliance costs and the necessity to purchase emissions permits. As legislators, Members must take into consideration all these factors. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland has estimated such costs could amount to approximately €100 million to €150 million per annum unless Ireland reaches its targets. Consequently, a balanced view must be taken in respect of wind production, economic development and on jobs for the local community. Most importantly, today's debate is about regulations to ensure that when wind turbines are put in place, the needs of the local community are taken into consideration.

As the Minister of State has outlined, a review is under way of the departmental wind energy development guidelines of 2006. This review must consider that Ireland continues to meet its renewable energy target, while at the same time ensuring wind energy does not have a negative impact on local communities. While I am all in favour of renewable energy and wind farms, I am also conscious of the needs of local communities. The Minister of State should ensure these are met through consultation, local democracy and so on. I acknowledge that in her speech, the Minister of State outlined how she is going about the public consultation guidelines. I have one further question on the timetable for publication of draft guidelines. While I read somewhere they are due in the third or fourth quarter of 2013, the Minister of State might provide a date.

I understand a two-week consultation period took place in February 2013 in respect of energy guidelines. As for the newer issues concerning the new technology and new research on noise pollution, a major debate on this issue is taking place at present in the midlands, County Donegal and right across the west of Ireland where there is potential for high-producing wind energy. In this context, as Ireland's wind capacity on tap is four times as great as that in Germany, we must ensure that we avail of it. However, Members also must ensure the fears of local residents are allayed and must put in place regulations, including statutory regulations. The Minister of State will acknowledge that guidelines are one thing, while statutory guidelines and regulations are another. When mobile telephone masts first came on the scene, I was a member of South Dublin County Council, which had precisely the same debate on regulations and guidelines. Only guidelines were put in place, which were walked over and a horse and carriage driven through them. At times, absolutely no notice was taken of them. Guidelines sometimes are not worth the paper on which they are written. It may not have been fashionable at the time but I had it written into South Dublin County Council's development plan that there should be a mandatory distance between masts. I started with a gap of 300 m but found that such a restriction within an urban area would leave one without a telephone in south Dublin. One must be careful that regulatory guidelines do not actually hinder development with no good cause for the residents. In the case of mobile telephones, South Dublin County Council ended up with a statutory distance of 100 m written into its development plan. Consequently, limits should be considered in a local context because a wind turbine situated in one area might not have the same noise level effect as one situated in another.

The experts are out there and the Minister of State awaits the report on the subject. The current information deficit gives rise to unnecessary concern among some communities, as well as huge concerns among other communities. People do not wish to wake up one morning to find a mast at their back door. They wish to be assured that when buying a house in location A, B or C, the regulations or whatever is put in place cannot be interpreted by a planner with a different methodology.