Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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15. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government when the wind farm guidelines on which a public consultation was held will be published, and the main provisions of same; and his plans to bring forward to Committee Stage the Wind Turbines Bill 2014 that was accepted last year by the Government. [9109/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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In December 2013, my Department published proposed “draft” revisions to the noise, setback distance and shadow flicker aspects of the 2006 Wind Energy Development Guidelines. These draft revisions proposed:

- The setting of a more stringent day and night noise limit of 40 decibels for future wind energy developments,

- A mandatory minimum setback of 500 metres between a wind turbine and the nearest dwelling for amenity considerations, and

- The complete elimination of shadow flicker between wind turbines and neighbouring dwellings.

A public consultation process was initiated on these proposed draft revisions to the Guidelines, which ran until 21 February 2014. My Department received submissions from 7,500 organisations and members of the public during this period. In this regard, account has to be taken of the extensive response to the public consultation in framing the final guidelines.

The Wind Turbines Bill 2014, which was debated during Private Members’ time in April 2014, was not opposed by the Government at second stage reading. However, it is my intention that the revisions to the 2006 Wind Energy Development Guidelines will be finalised in the near future and will address many of the issues raised in that Bill.