Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am sure the Leader will join me and other Senators in proposing a vote of sympathy for the late Mr. Terry Brennan, a former Member of this House. I ask that the Committee on Procedure and Privileges, CPP, discusses how we move forward with expressing votes of sympathy for former Members.It was usual that the family would come here on the day on which sympathies were expressed. I am sure that while that is not possible at this stage, there is a way forward.

In recent days the European Commission has given the Government the green light for the electricity support scheme to proceed. The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Eamon Ryan, outlined this in the Dáil. It is great to see this coming forward but it presents problems for communities. It includes a preference category to support communities to develop their own renewable energy projects, but they have a lot of problems in this field. First, the communities do not have the cash to develop these wind farms. Second, they have problems with the planning process, which is very detailed, complicated and expensive, and they need support on that. LEADER provides feasibility study funding for communities to develop wind farms and to have feasibility studies carried out, but that process is complicated as well and slow-moving. I ask the Leader to get the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment and perhaps the Minister with responsibility for rural affairs to come before the House at some stage in order that we might have a debate on the problems faced by community farms, whether onshore or offshore, in developing wind energy or offshore projects.