Richard O'Donoghue urges health review of wind farm guidelines

I am not against wind farms and biodigesters, but I am for health guidelines to be a tier two, which has been shown in the documentation that I have here, released under AIE, that in November 2021 and April 2022, Minister Raymond Ryan and Dara O'Brien agreed to abandon the 2017 preferred draft approach to wind energy guidelines, a plan based on science, environmental law and a form approved by government. But instead the following law, Eamon Ryan turned it into a wind industry fairy godmother. No noise limits to protect health, no plan to deal with aptitude modulation and the whoosh and thump, and no action on low-frequency noise, the hum and the rumble. These are actually the issues now in front of the High Court, where three wind turbines were turned off in Wexford on these same issues of health. Minister Ryan decided at the time he had the fairy dust to override the EPA expert advice. Did he think magic and strategic environmental assessments? Because that is what it looks like. This is not just bad policy, it is a serious breach of trust. Both ministers ignored expert warnings and environmental laws that are not leadership, it is recklessness. What legal authority did they have to do this? The HSE recommends the Hoonai standards to onboard Panala for the protection of health. How can the HSE say one thing and the government policy say something else? Will you now refer this whole matter to the Department of Health and to the HSE for a proper public review? Will you install wind energies until the review has taken place on the basis of health grounds? Everyone here, we all are for wind, but we are also for the health of people that live within the areas of where there are wind farms. At the moment in this country we have roughly 1,600 wind turbines. Under the 2030 policies for Targary we have to meet, we could have to get constant power, it could be 7,000 to 8,000 wind farms could have to be in this island to do this. Is this why the 2006 guidelines have never been updated? Is this why Eamon Ryan at the time decided to ignore health guidelines for the people of Ireland and put wind energy above health? These people were living here before any applications went in. Yes, and then for five years they delayed the demaps, which we could have actually looked at offshore and moved it along to help us on wind energy. This is what I am trying to say. Are we not putting health above everything else for the profiteering of wind farms to push in to make 2030 policies? The short answer is no, we are not. We take the concerns and the health of our people in this country very seriously. I recognise that there are people who have concerns in relation to their own community and their own impact in their own home. That is why I do think it is very important that we do have new wind guidelines that do give very significant clarity and certainty in terms of this. Because I am a very big believer in renewable energy. We have to be. The government is. It is the way forward. We can go from being, and I appreciate you say you are supportive of that too, we can go from being a net importer of energy to actually a net exporter and the huge potential that provides our country in terms of economic security. Lots of issues we talk about in this country, like the cost of energy, is hugely beneficial for our country. I think it is quite an exciting opportunity. But I do take the point, we obviously have to get the planning structures right in terms of how this is developed. People say to me across the country, why is that field being used for solar? People say to me across the country, hang on a second, is that the right setback distance in relation to the wind turbine? You are also right, the general direction of travel here will be to see a lot more offshore. Indeed, in the part of the country that I live in, we expect to see a very significant development. That is why we are trying to put in place new guidelines, and I accept fully, and it would be a bit of an understatement to say this process has taken quite a long time. There is a reason for that actually, and the programme for government recommits to prioritising the publication of new wind energy development guidelines. It specifically says we will have regard to international best practice and standards, so learning from other countries in relation to this as well. I was in contact this morning with the Minister for Housing, and I know the Minister for Housing, his department and also the Department of Communications, Energy and Environment are working together to now look at certain elements of the draft guidelines in relation to new renewable energy targets as well. It is their intention, following the conclusion of the engagement, to bring the review to government as quickly as possible. I am hoping and expecting that to be concluded by the end of the year. Certainly, that is what the two departments have told me this morning that they are working towards as well. There has been very significant engagement on this, and there has been a lot of opportunity for input, for public consultation as well. The aim here is to get an appropriate balance between addressing the concerns of local communities, by ensuring that there is greater earlier community engagement, while also making sure that we can tackle the energy and climate emergency that we face as well. The review also needs to take on board, and is taken on board, I suppose the planning policy context has changed because, of course, since this review started, we have passed a new Planning and Development Act of 2024, and we now have a new national planning framework recently approved by the Dáil. So those two documents, the law and the planning framework, will need to be taken into consideration as well. So they are working towards preparing draft guidelines, and they will put those draft guidelines out for public consultation, so there will be a chance for your constituents to feed in then, and let us try and get the process done later this year. Thank you, Tanisha, and thank you for your reply. If we have guidelines in place in 2006, you are right, it has taken 12 years at the moment we are looking at guidelines. Every time there is a change in government, it is guidelines, guidelines, guidelines. If there are guidelines put in place for wind turbines in this country, at least then they can be put up straight away. You won't have high court battles, you won't have objections because the guidelines are there. The same for biodigesters, the exact same thing. If guidelines are put in place, the people that want to build these for the betterment of the farming community and energy and everything else, will know where they can build them. So there will be no high court battles based on them then, we will be able to build them and also meet the energy targets that we need to do. But having 12 years to put in guidelines and ignoring at that time the health guidelines that are there from the World Health Authority, which actually tells you wind turbines are supposed to be done 1 is to 10, that will tell you that there will be no wind turbines built in Ireland if that is adopted, because at the moment we are building 1 is to 4. Every metre you go up, they say 4 metres away, but World Health Organisation says 1 is to 10. That means we need to push offshore now and save health for people in this country. Look at the health implications. Put them up where we can, get them up and then cover everything in the policies. I just want to once again say for the record of the House, obviously the health concerns of people and making sure any developments we bring about are compliant with people's health and wellbeing is absolutely important. I appreciate you saying that you see the benefit of the guidelines and I share your view on this. Having clarity in relation to this I think would be helpful for people, including in relation to solar, by the way, because when I go around the country people are saying, hang on, is that a good use of that field? Is that a good use? Is that not prime agricultural land? We do need for once and for all to make a call, by the way, when we publish the guidelines, as is often the case, I am not saying everyone will be delighted with them, probably far from it, but at least we will have clarity and we will have an opportunity for public consultation. We need to call it and we need to get on with it and that is what the two departments are working in relation to. On the issue of anaerobic digesters, look, there is, as you know, priority deliverables under the new strategy and there are specifically actions 5F and 5G and again this says that the development of planning guidelines to support local authorities when assessing planning applications in relation to these plants and a review of resourcing requirements to key government agencies to support the development of the industry are two priority actions and these actions will be delivered through collaboration among key departments and key agencies.