Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State or his response. I am somewhat aware of the intricacies of this issue in east County Galway. The construction of this site started before I entered politics, and I will be in it 20 years in June this year. It has been going on a while. The thrust of the Bill introduced by Senators McDowell and Boyhan makes sense in terms of there being an issue, which is a site capable of producing energy and what can be done to allow it be maintained and produce that energy. The Minister of State has outlined the difficulties. This was obviously discussed today at Cabinet as is all Private Members' business. This is a complex issue. No doubt he has gotten legal advice on the matter. He explained the complexities of substitute consent, the infringement cases, the lump sum payments and daily fines we are facing from Europe. Any new owners would also need planning permission and the Minister of State has said there is no expectation or reason to expect a different result. In this case, that would be problematic for the Western Development Commission if it was to be the new owner and had to apply. There are a number of issues relating to the complexities of this area of law.I do not pretend to be an expert but I do know that whether it be this type of development, quarries, or the issues that are being faced in Lough Funshinagh in Roscommon at the moment, there are issues pertaining to special areas of conservation and natural heritage areas that are complex. It may not make sense to the layperson looking at an existing wind farm that is in operation that the area has been rehabilitated and that it can provide - like all wind farms - funding for local communities through sponsorship and the likes. From one individual to whom I have spoken, the view locally is that the whole thing is madness - the fact that there is a wind farm and it is going to have to be taken down.

Can the situation be solved by this Bill? I do not know. Can it be solved by another Bill? I do not know. Is this something that requires EU Commission intervention and change at EU level for such situations? I do not know. It is an entirely complex area. The whole area of substitute consent is problematic. It requires large levels of expenditure. I have no problem with that. Some of the State entities like the ESB could probably afford those type of things but the small guy could not. I am not sure about the present owners or operators of this wind farm.

Were mistakes made? The peat slide originally caused an amount of damage. The question is whether we have to fully dismantle the wind farm. We can take down the turbines and remove them at the base, but if we have to dig up foundations and everything else like that, the question is what level of damage could be done in that case. I am not sure if that is a requirement or if it is the case that the turbines themselves would be taken up and the rest covered with peat. I do not know. There are a lot of questions and a lot of issues to consider. The Government has made a decision today, but I believe it is in the interests of everybody in the locality and for reasons of common sense, energy security and everything else, including the investment that took place and if one likes, the morality of the whole thing, that a solution would be found to this problem. It surely cannot be that there was no solution other than its removal, possibly causing more damage in the act of trying to remedy and rectify the situation.

I do not have the solution and I do not pretend that I have. I cannot come up with any piece of legislation that could be suddenly magicked up to solve this issue. The best way to proceed is to follow the legal advice and to engage with the European Union, the Commission and the Legislature in this country. Surely solutions can be found to issues such as this. Nobody is suggesting that we give carte blancheto anyone to do anything. Of course not, but where we have a project that is built, and that has the potential to operate and provide power, and where the dismantling of said infrastructure could cause more damage, it is not beyond the wit of man and woman to try to find a solution through whatever avenue. While the Government has decided to oppose this motion – I acknowledge the advice that was received in relation to it - I hope the Minister of State can bring back to the Cabinet that a practical solution needs to be found to allow this wind farm to continue to be maintained for the local community and for the good of the environment going forward. Unfortunately, we cannot change the past. We cannot change what happened and the damage that was done, but we can look to the future of this project.