Seanad debates

Tuesday, 5 July 2022

EirGrid, Electricity and Turf (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages

 

12:00 pm

Photo of Lynn BoylanLynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Mid Shannon Wilderness Park in the midlands. Bord na Móna gave a commitment to the community. The community was asked what it would like to see happen in the area and the people in the area were given a commitment for a wilderness park. It was endorsed by the county manager at the time. Bord na Móna then went ahead and put in a planning application for a wind farm on the site. We know that wind farms on peatland, particularly if the peat can be rehabilitated, is going to cause emissions as opposed to what it could be, that is, a carbon sink. Bord na Móna went back on that.

The planning application was withdrawn because Bord na Móna believed it was going to lose in the courts. We now hear it will put forward another application. The community bought into the idea of a wilderness park. There is fantastic wildlife in the area. As soon as the pumps were turned off, wildlife returned to the area. That includes nesting waders. Bord na Móna is continuing to pump water off that peatland, which uses energy at a time we are all trying to conserve it. It is pumping water off the peatland which has resulted in the awful sight of those nesting birds wandering around wondering where the water source they landed on has gone.

I do not think the commitment in Bord na Móna's blue-green strategy holds water when what it is doing in action is completely contrary to it. It is riding roughshod over what communities in that area want. The community was given a commitment that once the extraction of peat ended, there would be engagement over a just transition process. Senator Higgins has her reasons for submitting the amendment but I support it because I do not see Bord na Móna demonstrating a commitment to a just transition and certainly not with regard to the Mid Shannon Wilderness Park. Bord na Móna's proposition for that site is in contradiction with the Government's peatland strategy.

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