Brian Stanley urges action on onshore wind and energy mix

I have listened to everybody for the contributions. I have listened very carefully to what people had to say. I think the debate has been constructive, but we need to move from discussion and debate to action. I will be pressing the bill, Minister, because we have kicked the touch too many times on this already. You mentioned the significant progress that has been made. It has not been made. This issue of noise, and you mentioned as well the noise issue that it is causing the delay. I do not have the exact words, but it is in the script there. That is the issue. What I am saying to you is that are we going to ignore World Health Organisation guidelines so as to allow these international investors to plant turbines to export energy overseas? I do not have a problem exporting energy. If we have surplus energy, by all means we should. The Celtic Interconnector, which has supported. I have fully supported. I remember going to France about it as part of an Oireachtas delegation to meet the electric company over there about it seven or eight years ago. There was one from Fianna Fáil and one from Fianna Fáil and one from Fianna Fáil and myself in Tover. It is a great idea, but the problem is that we just cannot keep putting this back. You mentioned the 2006 guidelines that the department will still be there. There they are. It is a 400-metre setback. We are getting to a point that some of these turbines, if they have already hit a house at this stage, they are so high. It is causing real problems. Real problems. The reason we have to get this 80% from onshore wind, we have allowed this to develop. I remember arguing this with Phil Hogan in this chamber. He is going out here a good while. The reason we are doing that is because we have not developed the other sources. Offshore has not happened, except for the one on the Arc law, which is there a number of years. The amount of solar is minuscule. Aerobic digestion is only in the thought process part of it. We have a huge problem with animal waste. You know that in government. We have a huge problem. What do we do? We have a very strong agricultural sector. And that is good. But we have a problem with agricultural waste. And one of the things that can happen, Minister, is that a lot of that waste can be utilised for biogas. That is what we are doing in other countries. You know, if we go to other countries, that is what they are doing with it. And we should be doing that. Hydrogen, we have not even really got going with it yet. You know, solar, as I said, is really only starting. Hydro, which, you know, the top bison girls in the department have dismissed over the years. But yet we have built Turlock Hill in the 1970s and had to pump water up to it. And, you know, it provides peak electricity. But the point I am making to you is that we are in a situation where all of those sources have to be used. And that is why we have boxed ourselves into a corner. We are now out to meet our obligations. We have to, or that is what at least we are being told, to produce 80% from onshore wind. That is actually questionable. A lot of this has been done for to export. And Deputy Hennigan mentioned that in relation to a turbine that has been wasted, a lot of the excess generation, when all the turbines are going and the grid cannot take it. But that is the nature of wind. You know, wind is intermittent. It is a brilliant source of energy. I support it. But it has to be done with other sources. You can't put all your eggs into that basket. And that is what Government have done. Communities in Woolf Hill, in Spink, in Moho, and now Ballinock Hill, and Dorough, and Cullohill, and right across North Kilkenny, they are now facing into these situations. Some communities have to take judicial reviews. 60,000, 70,000 they have had to raise. And we have to go to the forecourts. Like, that is not a planning system we should have. When we have to go there, it is all over. That is not what we should have to do. We need to have a better system in this country. And one of the things that, if we do it in partnership with people, you know, people can be brought along. And particularly, if people have a stake in things, it is different. Deputy Fleming mentioned that, you know, that there may be difficulties if the 10 per cent ownership, and take on board what you are saying, but I will also point out to you, Temple Derry in Tipperary, that is completely community owned. They are not worried about that. They are doing very well out of it. There are 28 shareholders. One of them is the local GAA and clubs in the area. You know, and the rest of them are local people who invested in it. They are not bothered about that. They know that this is a, that this is a good bet. And it is working out for them. And they, they came in at a time when wind turbines weren't as efficient as they are now. So they are even more profitable now. You know, the Chinese manufacturers are really up the game. The very same as they have with the solar panels. But as I said, the biogas, you know, the whole issue of farm waste, that hasn't, you know, we haven't even started to get to that now. Farm organisations are now starting to look ahead. The department is, I welcome that. But we're coming late to it. We're coming late to all of these things. These trains were coming down the track at us. And what do we do? We've done nothing. And government, I'm saying this to you, you know, government is moving too slow on a whole range of things. It's glacier like what's happening. That's the one thing that I find frustrating. You know, as a member of a county council, I know it's a smaller scale. But you could get things done in a week sometimes, or in a month or a year. But Jason here, like, I mean, trying to get stuff moving, it takes forever and a day sometimes. And that's not, that's not the way it should be. One of the Sinn Féin speakers mentioned that it would pop the price of electricity, but it didn't explain how, you know. I support the idea of the, mentioned by Deputy Hennigan, where, you know, that a lot of countries, if we had, if we had a national energy company, that, you know, that we would be actually trying to utilise this. And if we go back to 40 years ago, 95% of electricity was in public ownership. Now it's 25%. That's my understanding. It's down to 25%. You know, 40 years ago, and 95% owned in public ownership, we had one of the lowest electricity prices in the European Union. What's happened since? We're now in the top three or four. That's where we hover now. Top three or four highest prices of electricity in the European Union. So you can see that that hasn't been very good for the customers and for the householders. So look at, I fully support, I fully support using renewable energies. I fully support using wind. I did say, some men, one other Speaker said that I said there was flaws in the bill. I didn't say that. I said that people might want to amend this bill. Maybe you don't have misunderstood what I was saying. People can, you know, because no piece of legislation, including what comes in government, is ever perfect on the first drafting. But there's a lot of work going into it. It's not something that was put together in a week or a month, or even six months. And what I would say is, is that, you know, if government or opposition people want to amend it, I'm open to all of that and working with people. But we have to try and, we have to try and change it. And we have to try and get a system in place. I can't figure out what's happened to Micheál Martin. I mean, reading the script from 2013, I mean, he said exactly a lot of the things I've said today. And some of the other speakers have said here, the Deputy Nolan and Deputy Fleming and other people have said here. But now all of a sudden, you know, and as Taoiseach, he has a special responsibility here to drive this and to push it on. And I must recognise as well, but for the work of local groups, you know, and by and large, there haven't been all a bunch of NIMBYs. Most of them have been people who just want a little bit of fair play. You know, a lot of them groups have spent nights doing, you know, researching information, putting legal matters together, which you shouldn't have to do, doing research on it, networking, you know, trying to fundraise and everything like that. They've put in huge work, and I want to recognise that. But we need to have people spend their time doing better things than that. I'm saying to the Government as well, guidelines can be twisted and moulded. Okay, stronger guidelines would be better, Minister, and newer guidelines, updated ones, taking account of the advances in the scale and technology that's there now, and the enormous size of these turbines would be better. But we are putting, you know, at the local Government Committee the other day, the issue of solar regulations come up. So if we're going to regulate for solar farms, which are less intrusive, why aren't we doing it for these enormous turbines? You know, why aren't we doing it for that? You said that you want me to kick it down the road for 12 months. I'm not agreeing to that. I'm pressing this bill. You know, I believe that we need to move on this now. We've been dancing on it for long enough. As I said at the start of it, I believe that what's delaying this is how Government and senior officials and the industries are going to explain to communities, oh, you know, sorry, we're going to have to scrap the World Health Organization guidelines. That isn't good enough. You know, the health, the first, the first job we have here every day is to protect the health and welfare of the people who send us here. We're all chock to dolly, whether we're ministers or Taoiseach or backbenchers, or wherever we are, or opposition. That's our first job. And the WHO guidelines, they're the standard. That's what we should be achieving. And we shouldn't be afraid to stick by them. And I'm appealing to deputies on all sides of the house to work together. And if you want to amend the bill, I'm open to doing that. It's my best crack at it. You know, I don't have the resources of a government department drafted, but I think most people admit it's a fair stab. It's the best stab at one that was made here in the last 15 years. So what I would say is, is that don't kick the touch. I'm pressing the bill for a vote. Thank you for it. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.