John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I called for a debate a few weeks ago in this House with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources on wind farms and wind energy in general. I had a Commencement debate with him on a community fund that is supposed to be in place. It appears that if locals object to a wind farm development, they will get the benefit of a community fund, yet if they sit back and do not object they get nothing. In my area of Rooskey, Ballaghaderreen, a company that put up two massive wind turbines had a local person apply for the planning permission and because he was a local person, the locals did not object to his application. Once he got the planning permission, the company bought the turbines from him. Now it appears that there is mobile phone interference when the turbines are rotating, and when the wind comes from the west or south locals cannot watch their televisions because they freeze. The notion that these industrial wind turbines do not affect health is false. I call on the Leader to have a debate as soon as possible in the House on wind farms and wind energy.