John Whelan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to put on record the following fact. This year the German taxpayer will subsidise the wind industry in Germany to the tune of €23 billion. That is not small change by any standards, even for the Germans. So much for cheap energy or for what we are being told is free energy. Yesterday, as part of an ongoing propaganda process, Sustainable Energy Ireland published a report that is ráiméis masquerading as a report that is really propaganda driven by wind energy developers. The policy devised by SEI is totally contaminated and undermined by vested interests. It is entirely unacceptable that this country is being sleep-walked into an energy policy that is being driven by developers in cahoots with policymakers. We know what happened the last time that happened in this country. I thought that we had left that kind of politics, policy making and strategy behind us. Have we replaced the Fianna Fáil Galway tent with a new teepee of cosy cronies? I do not say this lightly this morning, Chathaoirleach. The Chairman of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, Mr. Brendan Halligan, is a consultant for the wind industry. He works for the biggest wind farm developer in the country, Mainstream energy and is on the board of Mainstream energy.