John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Indeed, community and citizen engagement has proven to be a joke in the past but I hope the situation will improve. I read in my local newspaper this week that the ESB has launched a scheme called community fund 2015 for another development in County Roscommon. At least it has advertised that it is willing to sit down with communities to talk to people and agree a set figure.

I shall return to the point I made earlier. In Sliabh Bán people were originally offered €1,000 per MW produced but that offer was increased to €1,500 after negotiations. A Minister in the UK, and that is why I suggest that the Minister here should analyse how the calculation came about, introduced a rate that is five times greater than what wind farm developers get away with here. The final rate is purely down to the Minister here. I would appreciate if he would examine what mechanisms were brought into place in the UK that have given greater security to communities there. People know what they are going to get when they learn what size of wind farm development is going ahead.