Terry Brennan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support Senator Kelly and his colleagues. In my own area, there are plans for six turbine masts at Rockmarshall, a very scenic area of north Louth. These masts would be higher than the Spire in O’Connell Street and twice the height of Liberty Hall, and to have them in a scenic area where local people cannot build houses for themselves is beyond comprehension.

I want to focus on a sustainable energy community, Dundalk 2020, that was established some years ago by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI. This is a community in which everyone works together to be more efficient in the use of energy and it is a major team effort. The development of a sustainable energy community requires an holistic approach, with the public sector, private sector and homeowners working together to reduce energy costs and their own energy bills. The sustainable energy community in Dundalk is playing its part in achieving our national energy targets for 2020, having been established by the SEAI in conjunction with Louth County Council, other local authorities and other local and national partners. Those bodies must be applauded for their vision and commitment to reducing energy costs and carbon emissions. I believe SEAI, together with other local authorities, hopes to establish other sustainable energy communities similar to that at Dundalk.

Dundalk 2020 has successfully established a number of projects which save approximately 5,000 tonnes of CO2 gas emissions being emitted into the atmosphere annually, which is a major success. The Dundalk zone is a 4 sq. km area where 2,500 people live, 3,000 people work and 5,800 people are in full-time education. The Louth local authorities were the first bodies to implement a structured energy management system and they established a dedicated team that has in the past eight years saved €500,000 for Louth County Council. Dundalk Institute of Technology, DKIT, has installed an 850 KW wind turbine on its campus as well as a 125 KW storage battery to store energy, and I understand this is contributing to a reduction in the energy costs of the college campus. In addition, 160 residents in the Ard Easmuinn estate in Dundalk, working together to conserve energy, have saved themselves in excess of €300,000 per annum. These examples of what has been achieved in Dundalk should be emulated in all local authority areas throughout the country, thereby saving energy and costs and, importantly, saving on emissions of CO2 to our atmosphere.