Tony Mulcahy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I acknowledge the efforts of the wind industry in helping to reduce our expenditure on fossil fuels over recent years but I have a serious problem with the Government policy which states:

We will ensure that future wind farms are built in locations where wind regime is best and that they are built in large numbers or in clusters to reduce the cost of connection to the grid under new plan led Gate 4 process as opposed to the existing developer led system.

Unfortunately there are citizens throughout the State and in my county, Clare, in Kilmarry and the midlands who are terrified at the prospect of 500 ft and 600 ft turbines being built outside their doors. There is no distance restriction. I have seen the 200 ft turbines and I would not like to see the 600 ft ones. Telling somebody that this will be built half a kilometre from his or her door does not take citizens into consideration. We should be concerned about them above all. I am not altogether sure of the economic justification for all these turbines and the electricity they will create. None of the turbines is made here. There will be money to be made out of the concrete or the few trucks that will drive down the road for a couple of years to put them in place, but what jobs will come after that?