Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I agree with most of what has been said thus far. The development of the wind energy strategy in Ireland has been an absolute shambles. I place a lot of the blame on previous Administrations. I will try to stick to the planning elements. I was at a meeting in Moycullen in Galway on 19 February. There are eight wind farms planned for that area, with 103 turbines within an 8 km radius. Twenty-nine of those are to be within 4 miles of Moycullen village. The implication is that there will be 1,176 trucks driving through that small village. There does not appear to be much of a traffic management plan in place. Each of the turbines requires 80 truckloads of concrete. Therefore, in the case of one of the farms, 800 truckloads of concrete will be required. The impact on the local community is massive. A large segment of the local community was present at the meeting. They claimed there was no meaningful public consultation on these developments whatsoever.

There is a lack of guidelines at national level and a lack of joined-up thinking between the various Departments that are dealing with various elements of the matter. This is part of the problem.

There is a very interesting case before the Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions that relates to Lettergunnet-Derrycrih windfarm. It was brought by Yvonne Cronin and cites that there are six instances of contravention of the county development plan due to the omission of documents. These include the community noise assessment, community impact assessment, habitats directive assessment, peatland conservation management plan, land and site susceptibility and risk management documentation and an environmental impact assessment, the last of which was not prepared. The case never received a hearing because of a technicality. The petitioners in question tried to have the planning permission revoked under section 44 of the planning legislation but, thus far, Galway County Council has not availed of the opportunity to do so.

There is very much a sense that the developers and executives in the county councils are working hand in hand on this issue. This raises questions as to a conflict of interest in councils as they are due to benefit greatly from the erection of wind turbines across the county because of the moneys they will receive. Therefore, one could argue it would be in the interest of the executives in the county council to put up as many wind turbines as possible. From having talked to people in communities, I know they feel they have been ridden over roughshod or that there has been a sleight of hand regarding consultation processes, site notices, etc.

Considerable issues arise over developments that are going ahead and the way planning issues are being policed even when planning permission has been granted. I have been told of instances in which blasting happens without people being consulted. I have been told about considerable traffic congestion, insufficient traffic-management plans, traffic-management plans that were not communicated to local communities and noise from some of the sites.

I would like the Minister of State's opinion on the six documents I listed.

Is the Department happy that all documents such as noise assessments, community impact statements, habitats directive assessments or HDAs and so forth are in place for every development? If not, the relevant developments should be reviewed.

As regards the use of section 44 of the planning Act, does the Minister of State believe councils should use it? There is also a huge disparity among county councils in the way the guidelines are implemented. Some will state one can locate a wind farm in a special area of conservation, SAC, while others will state one cannot. What happens in these cases is that developers are given planning permission under wind energy strategies to develop wind farms very close to houses. That is the reason many of them are totally unacceptable.

I am also anxious to hear the Minister of State's views on the concept that a public servant in a county council, for example, could be a director of EirGrid. EirGrid is the organisation that grants the connections to the network. There is a potential conflict of interest in terms of the county councils making a huge gain from where these connections might be put in place. Wind energy is a natural resource. This country made huge mistakes in the way it licensed oil and gas exploration. I hope we do not take the same route in the way we develop wind energy projects, whereby it is totally developer-led and there is very little gain for local communities. I agree with other Senators who have said there should be a moratorium on developments until we review the developments in place. We must move on Senator John Kelly's wind turbines Bill. Although it would not go far enough, it would at least be a first step. We also must examine the European Court of Justice ruling which the Senator mentioned and consider making the provisions illegal because of the potential cost to the State.