Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the Senators who participated in the debate. There was a high level of engagement, concern and knowledge. A couple of common themes emerged, the main one being the importance of the community, of listening to what the community has to say and of real consultation. That is an absolute priority for me too. As I said in my opening statement, we received 550 submissions when we had the initial consultation. We will have a further statutory consultation later in the year. I encourage people to give their views to the Department so that they will be in the mix. I am sure the Senators will do likewise. I too have received e-mails from people and Senator Whelan is right to say that women are leading in this respect. People are expressing real and genuine concern. It is our duty as legislators to ensure that we take those concerns on board.

This is about balance because we must also consider the statutory obligations and commitments that we have entered into and the importance of renewable energy in respect of climate change, etc., nationally and internationally. We must take those obligations seriously too. Everybody who contributed to the debate acknowledged that. I think I have outlined the process fairly clearly already. We will now read the submissions we have received and take them into consideration for draft guidelines which will be put out for public consultation for a period of between six weeks and two months. The final guidelines will be developed from that process.

Some of the matters raised were strictly speaking for the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, and for the Government as a whole. Senators Barrett, Clune and Mulcahy raised the broader issues of value for money and the benefit to the country. I have no doubt that the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources is working on those areas. It has also commissioned a study from Sustainable Energy Ireland which will feed into our process. That is a somewhat limited study. It does not cover the broad issues that the Senators raised. There are much broader issues that must be addressed.

A number of Senators highlighted the issue of consistency in the application and interpretation of plans. I have strong views in this regard and I have been in touch with the local authorities with regard to what we call the hierarchy of plans, in other words, that other plans and guidelines should be taken into account in the drafting of development plans. Some local authorities are better than others with regard to enforcement and compliance with the various statutory guidelines and plans. This is an important issue.

I refer to the significant role of An Bord Pleanála. The right of appeal to An Bord Pleanála is available to be used by the public. Senator Kelly and others are of the view that distances should be specified in legislation. However, technology is changing. Senator Mulcahy referred to the very large turbines that may or may not be coming down the line. A number of factors relate to the technology of how to deal with the effect of noise on those living and working near the proposed developments. It is reasonable to wait for the expert and peer review. The Minister, Deputy Rabbitte has established a review of practices in other countries, such as Scotland, which will inform any decision. We need to inform ourselves about a very rapidly changing situation. The original guidelines were drawn up when turbines were much lower in height than the proposed turbines.

On the suggestion that there should be a distance of 1,000 m between the turbines and other buildings, NUI Maynooth has carried out studies which show that a 1 km setback would mean only 9.4% of the country would be available for consideration for wind turbines. Higher levels of setback for higher turbines would mean that even less of the country would be available. The Department is considering that data from NUI Maynooth. Many factors need to be taken into account but I accept that the view of the community must be to the fore and it may not have been taken into consideration heretofore. I assure the House that from my perspective, this view will be taken into consideration. As public representatives we must ensure that the views of local people are a central part of the consideration, while also ensuring that binding targets are achieved. We will need to exploit the opportunities for the country presented by our natural advantage in a number of renewable technologies and energy.

I thank all those who contributed to the debate. I have tried to respond as directly as I can to the points raised but I am available to hear other views. I have outlined the timeframe for the process and the House will be informed of progress. When the draft guidelines are issued I expect to hear very strong views expressed by those Senators who hold them.