John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. We need to bring people with us on this issue. To do so, we need consensus. Proper set-back distances will achieve that and remove the need to debate the viability of wind energy. According to the Department, the set-back distances outlined in my Bill meant that Ireland would not achieve its targets.

At our think-in on Monday, we received a presentation from offshore wind farm developers. Offshore wind farms are twice as expensive to build as onshore wind farms but are eight times more productive. The mathematics suggest that this is the direction we should be taking. This situation is like someone deciding to get married and to build a one-bedroom house, only to add more bedrooms when he or she has children.

We are not seeing democracy in action when the Government can simply decide that it does not support a Bill that has passed all Stages in the Seanad, effectively burying it. This issue will become more prominent nationally. The only way to solve it and to get people off the Government's back is to keep wind farms so far from homes that they do not affect people.