Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein)

I welcome the Minister of State. It is nice to have him back here. My Commencement matter relates to wind turbines and the effects they have on rural communities. Two wind farms are being proposed in County Limerick, one in Coolcappa and the other in the area of Bruff and Dromin-Athlacca. Both of these wind farms will have wind turbines of 158 m, which are extremely high wind turbines similar to the ones seen on the main motorway from Limerick to Dublin, so you can imagine the height of these near houses. These wind farms are causing unbelievable problems in the area because the proposer of the wind turbines has given his land, where these wind turbines are proposed to go, but the people in the houses, schools and communities nearby are completely opposed due to the distance and proximity to their homes. They reckon they will completely lose the value of their homes if these wind turbines go up. They will not be able to sell when it comes to it, nor will they even want to pass them down to their children because of the flicker effect and the noise of the wind turbines.

It is really frustrating that we are working off guidelines from 2006 when new guidelines were drafted in 2019. We are in 2025, six full years since these guidelines were drafted, but they have not been published. Local authorities are completely inconsistent with their plans and procedures for wind farms. They are working off old guidelines. They do not know if the wind turbines going up at the moment will be within the new guidelines. If the new guidelines come out and stipulate that we cannot have turbines at a height of 158 m, these new ones that go up will not be pulled out. They will not. Realistically, once something goes in, that it is it; it is in.

Another big issue for our rural communities is that when these wind turbines go in, people will not be able to get planning permission to build a house on all the land in the surrounding area. We are going to end up depopulating our rural areas. It has happened in the past. Two wind turbines went up and I know the family who lived in a house near the turbines. They were far enough back from the house that no one objected because they were not going to be in the way, but when their son came of age and wanted to build a house on the land they owned next to the house, he could not build there because it was too close to the turbines. We are stopping future planning permission by putting these turbines in the middle of these rural areas. We need to be protecting our future planning for our rural areas. I ask that these guidelines be published immediately.