Brian Stanley urges new Wind Turbine Regulation Bill 2025

Thanks for the opportunity to raise this important bill, the Wind Turbine Regulation Bill 2025. The bill provides for the regulation of large wind turbines and large wind farms. As someone who is in favour of developing wind energy and supported, I believe that we also need some regulations on doing this, and we need to do it in a practical and sensible and planned way. Wind energy has an important part to play in terms of renewable energy sources, along with biogas, along with solar and multiple other sources. All has to be used. But there has been a failure by Government to put regulations in place, or even to update the 2006 guidelines that were put in place from wind turbines, where less than a quarter of the height that they are now. That is the key point, Minister Cummins. You know, multiples of what they were back in 2006. I brought forward legislation in 2014, 2016 and 2021 on this. Four years ago, there was due to be a two-hour debate in the Dáil on the bill I was bringing forward. But this was derailed at the time by the leader of the largest opposition party, taken in probably by the large companies and spooked by sections of the media. So here we are again, in an effort to ensure that we have a proper planning framework that will protect local communities, but at the same time allow for badly needed provision of green and renewable energy. Section one of the bill sets out the interpretation of the bill and explains the references made in that. Section two deals with electricity supply to meet national need across the 32 counties of Ireland, north and south. That is why we need the north-south interconnector. Some disagree with that. That is up to them. And that the excess could be met, the excess could be exported to our neighbours in Britain and France, etc. Section three restores some level of local democracy to local councils, in that large wind turbines can only be located in areas designated by county councillors in their county development plans. You are familiar with what is going on on the Kilkenny-Leish border at the moment. There is a meeting next Wednesday night, I believe. Section four sets out a number of conditions that wind farm developers must carry out to ensure that there is effective consultation with the local communities. Section five stipulates that noise from wind farms does not exceed the limits set out by the World Health Organization Community Guidelines for NISE 1999. Importantly, it states that shadow flicker from the rotation of the blades must not pass over the windows of nearby dwellings. Section six puts in place a clear requirement and section seven that no wind turbine over 30 metres in height shall be located not less than the measurement of the distance of seven and a half times the height of the turbine from any dwelling and deals with that requirement in good detail. And that allows for the development of wind farms. It does not stop it. It just means a sensible measurement being put in place. Section eight deals with compliance by developers and those who do not do so, the penalties are levied on them for that. Section nine means that there has to be a sufficient bond lodged with the local authorities, to repair any damage to local infrastructure such as roads, bridges or buildings or water services, etc. during the period of construction. Section 10 puts responsibility on the wind farm owners to ensure that proper decommissioning is done in an environmentally sustainable way because they will need to be decommissioned 20-25 years time. Section 11 provides an opportunity for local communities who live within four kilometres of the wind farms to purchase up to 10 per cent stake in the wind farm, should they wish to do so. And that provision is common in other countries, Minister. This bill puts some order on an industry where large corporations have held sway and held all the cards. The government in Dáil has failed, including opposition parties. Some members of the Dáil may wish to amend parts of this bill and the government may wish to amend it. I accept that. I am not saying that this is the be all and end all, but there is some level of detail in this and there is a lot of work going into it. So what I am asking is that I am asking for this bill to get a fair chance. So I appeal to the government to allow this to go to second stage. And I appeal to members of the Dáil on all sides to do what we have failed to do for nearly 20 years now, since 2006, and put in place proper regulations and guidelines for this important industry, which we must have as part of our solution to our renewable energy needs.