Carol Nolan urges pause on wind farm developments until guidelines

Minister, communities have been waiting many years now for the publication of the revised wind farm guidelines. I am asking you here today if you will pause all wind farm developments until the guidelines are published, and finally when will we see these guidelines published? Thank you, Coy Hearlach, and Deputy Nolan for your question. As you will be aware, there is no ability for me as Minister with responsibility for planning to place a pause on any type of planning application, be that for housing, wind energy, infrastructure projects or any other type of development. The 2006 wind energy development guidelines will remain in force pending the finalisation of revised guidance, which is currently subject to a focused review by my department, which is considering matters such as noise, setback distance, shadow flicker, community obligation, community dividend and grid connections. My department, in conjunction with the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment, has been working to advance guidance on a number of these key aspects, including the noise aspect of the guidance, to ensure they are robust and fit for purpose, having regard to a whole series of considerations, but not limited to our commitments to increase the percentage of our electricity that comes from renewable sources. In the interim, at a local level, the city and county development plans set out where development is acceptable, including wind energy development. I can assure you that I am acutely conscious of the commitment in the programme for Government 2025, securing Ireland's future, to prioritise the publication of the wind energy development guidance, having regard to international best practice and standards. In light of this commitment, my department is working towards concluding the finalisation of a review of the guidance as a matter of priority, having regard to the requirements for a public consultation and the finalisation of associated reforms and reviews included in the revision of the MPF. Thank you for your response, Minister. I am disappointed that more has not been done in terms of protecting the rights of communities. We are waiting on revised guidelines. Guidelines we currently have are giving too much leeway to wind energy companies that do not respect many of the communities. Particularly, in my own constituency of Offaly, we have a case where there is a heritage site, Le Monaghan Bog, and I want to commend everyone involved in that campaign. There is a heritage site with links to a monastic site, Clonmac-Noise and County Offaly, and a planned wind farm there is just ludicrous. Minister, I know you have mentioned that there is a focused review, and I welcome that. I do welcome that. But it is very important, and I know you have mentioned infrasound and shadow flicker. There are huge issues with infrasound and shadow flicker. I know for instance that I have many people contacting me about the sound, that they just cannot bear the sound, and there has been court cases taken in this country in relation to those issues. So, I would hope that the new revised guidelines are not published for the sake of ticking a box, but that they do address their genuine, legitimate concerns of communities and the infrasound issue. Thank you Deputy. I can assure you I am not going to be publishing anything for the sake of ticking a box. I have been in this role now for six or seven months. I want to ensure that we get these guidelines right. So, I have been working extensively with my officials in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage who have been engaging with their colleagues in the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment. All of those matters that you have raised are obviously being taken into account in terms of the review which is ongoing. I am aware of the draft guidelines that were published in 2019 before my time in this House or in this role and a considerable part of the submissions that were made or the quantum of submissions that were made were in relation to that noise element of it. And it has taken up a considerable amount of time obviously in trying to ensure that we get that element of it right. So, I am committed to ensuring that they are finalised. I am committed to a public consultation in relation to those draft guidelines when they are ready and I can just assure you that it is a priority in the department deputy thank you for your response and i know you mentioned public consultation but a lot of people are you know they don't take that seriously because their experience of public consultation has been that they haven't been respected i have had constituents on to me from north awfully where there's issues with sound and they have to move the livestock in their fields so those people feel that they're not listened to so if we're talking about public consultation number one it has to be meaningful and the second thing is that we have to ensure that communities are respected and protected and that we don't have instances where you know this infrasound issue is let go on and on and unfortunately it has i know i raised this minute the the issue of wind uh farms repeatedly through parliamentary questions most recently to the minister for the environment dara o'brien when i asked him if he would provide information regarding reports on wind turbine noise i also asked him to clarify his support for increased protections of persons affected by the noise and rather astonishingly the minister admitted to me that the environmental protection agency epa has not commissioned any winter wind turbine modeling reports and that the only report that seai has published specifically on the subject of wind turbine noise is examination of the significance of noise we need a lot more done in terms of this issue minister and again i would reiterate that this is a priority in my department with my officials who have been working on this for a considerable period of time and i want to ensure that we get these revised guidelines correct and right i take public consultation seriously we had a public consultation over the summer period in relation to exempted development over 920 submissions came in in relation to that i've reviewed all of those that have come in so i take on board what has what has come in in relation to those and it helps formulate policy but obviously to get to a point of having a draft you have to ensure that you try and ensure that they are as accurate and as complete as possible and that's what my officials have been working extensively on so look i hope that we'll be in a position um to be able to publish those uh in the not too distant future but i want to get it right thanks very much deputy that concludes priority questions