Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State has been tipped to be the next Minister for Education and Skills. She would do a very good job. I wish her the best of luck. I saw it in some of the newspapers over the weekend. Senator Cáit Keane will have a head start on her matter if the rumour turns out to be true.

I wish to raise a very serious issue and I am glad the Minister of State is here because responsibility for its lies within the Department. Often the relevant Minister is not available to deal with an Adjournment matter. I am sure the Minister of State is aware of the issue of wind turbine development because I am sure it takes up much of her time. The Minister rightly announced a review of the guidelines last year and draft planning guidelines and regulations for wind turbines were published. It is fair to say the existing guidelines were completely outdated.

The review in the Department is ongoing and there has been public consultation to which my party and many others contributed. Meanwhile, quite a number of planning applications have been decided by An Bord Pleanála or have been submitted to it. There is much confusion as to whether the old guidelines apply. They might be considered more liberal than what is required for a modern day wind farm development. If applications are pending with An Bord Pleanála, will revised guidelines, which hopefully will come into operation and be acceptable to the public, apply to planning decisions?

The issue has become particularly acute in County Meath where Element Power developed a major wind farm for export but the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, announced before the local elections that the plan had collapsed. A week after the local elections the company applied for planning permission for a project for domestic electricity supply, which had very similar infrastructure to the original proposal for export. It has begun the preplanning consultation process under the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act for 50 major wind turbines in County Meath. Public consultation has already taken place but it is completely unclear as to what guidelines or rules the company must comply with in the planning application. I am not asking the Minister of State to determine a particular planning application, but she and the Government set the guidelines and rules and the public wants to know what are the rules. Another consultation process is taking place with the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources on the export of wind, which will also have an impact on the development of these farms. In County Meath, we were told a project for export collapsed, but an identical project is now being planned for the domestic market. All of the guidelines are extremely relevant. The Minister of State knows the question I am asking and I look forward to hearing her response.