Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit ach bhí mé ag súil leis an Aire Ó Ceallaigh. I was hoping the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government would be in attendance but the Minister of State is attached to the Department, which is fair enough.

This is an important issue in respect of the guidelines with which An Bord Pleanála will have to comply in making decisions on planning applications for wind turbine developments, an issue which I have raised in the House previously. There has been an inordinate delay in revising the 2006 guidelines, which are out of date. Draft guidelines were published at the end of 2013 and little has happened since. I am sure work has been going on but it is a year and a half since the then Minister published draft guidelines, which were unacceptable, and there was a public consultation process after that. Little has happened with the exception of two applications being made to the board relating to north Meath. One is on appeal from the county council for a small development of large turbines near Nobber while the other application is by the Element power company for a massive development across north Meath.

What will be in the guidelines? RTE radio knew the other day and it had a good wind of what was happening. It is important that Parliament should know before a leak to RTE to try to help the Government parties and the Labour Party, in particular. We need to know whether the guidelines will be acceptable to local communities. What I hear about 700 m will not be acceptable and there are other issues surrounding the guidelines. What is the position on applications currently before An Bord Pleanála? Should the developers not withdraw them, presumably to comply with the revised guidelines, or is it the case that the old guidelines will continue to apply? No one will give a straight answer on this. One Fine Gael Deputy in Meath East says they will not apply while another Fine Gael Deputy says they will. The people deserve to know exactly what is going on in this regard because there should be fairness in planning. People should know what rules will apply. Will the Minister change the rules in the middle of the game to suit residents or will he leave the guidelines as they are to suit developers? That is the choice the Government has to make.

The 2006 guidelines are out of date and there has been criticism that Fianna Fáil should have revised them previously, but the reality is the turbines proposed for north Meath did not exist during the lifetime of the previous Government. They are brand new and it is about time the Government reacted properly to them. We need to know. There will be an oral hearing in Kells on 16 June. Anyone who will speak at the hearing will have to know what are the relevant planning guidelines. There is a planning application for another project before An Bord Pleanála, which is probably nearing decision. We need to know and there needs to be fairness. It is not good enough to say they will be published shortly because I have heard that at least twice during Commencement debates. We need to know the exact facts.