Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There is a good deal of dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean léi about this issue, which is surrounded by myths. It is not true, for example, that England - Scotland is a leading player in renewable energy, especially wind - has banned wind farms, although it is true that some Tory backbench MPs representing the shires make a great deal of noise about the issue. Last year alone, more wind turbines were erected in England than have been erected in this country since 2003.

As to the Deputy's request that the planning guidelines be offered for public consultation, the guidelines went out to advertised public consultation and an extensive response was received. My colleague, the Minister of State with responsibility for this matter, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, is teasing through the responses with the co-operation of officials in my Department. While I do not know how quickly she believes she will complete this work and promulgate the new guidelines, I do not suppose she will hang about on the issue.

The Senator has a point about local communities being surprised by planning applications. There is nothing the Government, and probably the political parties in the House, would want to do about the situation. If someone is minded to visit Moynalty or some other area and make a local farmer or landowner a bid in respect of options to erect a mobile telephone mast or wind turbine, the resulting transaction will be private. It is somewhat unfortunate that people may learn of it only after the event. However, all applications arising from such transactions must go through the planning process.

In respect of the discussions that have grown up around the development of an export sector in this country, I have been engaged with my opposite number in Westminster in putting in place the basis of a framework that can facilitate trade between the two countries. The relevant European directive requires there be an intergovernmental agreement in place. We have signed a memorandum of understanding and our respective officials are hammering away at the nuts and bolts of changing that into an intergovernmental agreement. The economics of it must stack up but it would appear that because we have a wealth of such resources, we have a capacity to generate more electricity than we need. We can only generate more electricity than we need if we can export it because broadly speaking it cannot be stored. We are in the fortuitous situation that we have the capacity to generate more than we need and Britain has a need for green energy to help it to meet its renewable targets and its appetite for energy. It is a win-win situation for both countries.

There is a lot of work to do with the nitty gritty of striking a bargain and Senators have been more moderate in their criticisms than some of the noise I heard in the other House, including one party that deplores my giving away natural resources, especially, as one Deputy put it at the last Question Time, "to the Brits". If I was in London selling beef, no one would complain in Meath. Similarly this is a commodity that it would be economic to trade. If it is, it will create jobs and wealth on this island and meet a demand on the other island. In the meantime, all projects must go through the planning process.