Wind Turbine Regulation Bill 2025: Second Stage [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2025-11-27
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Brian Stanley (IND), Laois

I thank everybody for their contributions. I have listened very carefully to what people have had to say. The debate has been constructive but we need to move from discussion and debate to action. I will be pressing the Bill because I think we have kicked to touch too many times on this already. The Minister of State mentioned that significant progress has been made; it has not. She mentioned that the noise issue is causing the delay. I do not have the exact wording but it is in the script. That is the issue. Are we going to ignore World Health Organization guidelines so as to allow these international investors to plant turbines to export energy overseas? I do not have a problem with exporting energy. If we have a surplus, then by all means we should. I fully supported the Celtic interconnector. I remember going to France seven or eight years ago about it, as part of an Oireachtas delegation, to meet the electric company over there. Representatives from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and I went there. It is a great idea, but the problem is we just cannot keep putting this back.
The Minister of State mentioned that the 2006 guidelines are still there, but they include a 400 m setback. We are now getting to a point where if one of these turbines fell, it would nearly hit a house because they are so high. This is causing real problems.
The reason we have to get this 80% from onshore wind, and I remember arguing this with Phil Hogan in this Chamber, and he is gone out of here a good while, is because we have not developed the other sources. Offshore has not happened, except for the Arklow one, which is there a number of years. The amount of solar is minuscule, and with anaerobic digestion we are only in the thought process part of it, and we have a huge problem with animal waste. The Minister of State knows that from being 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. A lot of that waste can be utilised for biogas. That is what they are doing in other countries and we should be doing the same. We have not even really got going with hydrogen yet. Solar, as I said, is really only starting. The top boys and girls in the Department have dismissed hydro over the years, yet we built Turlough Hill in the 1970s and had to pump water up to it, and it provides peak electricity. My point is that we are in a situation where all of these sources have to be used and that is why we have boxed ourselves into a corner where we are being told that, to meet our obligations, we have to produce 80% from onshore wind. That is actually questionable. A lot of this is being done to export.
Deputy Heneghan mentioned how a lot of the excess generation is being wasted when all the turbines are going and the grid cannot take it. That is the nature of the wind: it is intermittent. It is a brilliant source of energy. I support it but it has to be done with other sources. We cannot put all of our eggs into one basket and that is what Government has done. Communities in Wolfhill, Spink, Timahoe, Ballinakill, Durrow and Cullahill and right across north Kilkenny are now facing into these situations. Some communities had to take judicial reviews, costing €60,000 or €70,000, which they had to raise. People had to go to the Four Courts, and 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.
If we do it in partnership with people, they can be brought along. If they have a stake in things, it is different. Deputy Fleming mentioned that there may be difficulties regarding the 10% ownership. I take on board what he is saying, but I would also point out that Templederry in County Tipperary is completely community owned. They are not worried about that. They are doing very well out of it. There are 28 shareholders, including the local GAA club and other clubs in the area. The rest of them are local people who invested in it. They are not bothered about that. They know that this is a good bet and it is working out for them. They got in at a time when wind turbines were not as efficient as they are now. They are even more profitable now that the Chinese manufacturers have really upped the game, as they have done with solar panels.
We have not even started with the whole issue of biogas from farm waste. We have not even started to get that now. Farming organisations and the Department are now starting to look at it and I welcome that, but we are coming late to all of these things. These trains were coming down the track at us, and what did we do? We did nothing and the Government is moving too slow on a range of things. The pace is glacier-like.
That is the one thing I find frustrating. As a member of a county council, which I know is on a smaller scale, but I could get things done in a week sometimes, or a month or year. In here it sometimes takes forever and a day to get things moving. That is not the way it should be. One of the Sinn Féin speakers mentioned that it would put up the price of electricity but did not explain how. I support the idea mentioned by Deputy Heneghan. Like a lot of other countries, if we had a national energy company, we would be trying to utilise this. Some 40 years ago, 95% of our electricity was in public ownership. My understanding is that is down to 25%. We had one of the lowest electricity prices in the European Union 40 years ago when 95% of electricity was in public ownership. We now hover in the top three or four highest electricity prices in the EU. That has not been very good for customers and householders.
I fully support using renewable energies. I fully support using wind. One speakers said I stated there were flaws in the Bill. I did not say that; I said people might want to amend this Bill. Some Members might have misunderstood what I was saying. No legislation, including what comes from Government is ever perfect on the first draft. However, a lot of work has gone into it. It is not something that was put together in a week or a month or even six months. If Government or Opposition Members want to amend it, I am open to working with them but we have to try to change this and put a system in place.
I cannot figure out what has happened to the Taoiseach. Reading a transcript of his from 2013, he said many of the things I and other speakers, such as Deputies Nolan and Fleming, have said today. As Taoiseach, he has a special responsibility to drive this and push it on.
Local groups have not been a bunch of NIMBYs. Most of the people involved just want a little bit of fair play. Many of those groups have spent nights researching information and putting legal cases together, which they should not have to do. They network and try to fundraise and everything like that. They put in huge work and I want to recognise that. We need to have people spending their time doing better things than that. Guidelines can be twisted and moulded. Stronger, newer, updated guidelines that take account of the advances in the scale and ginormous size of these turbines and the technology available now would be better. The issue of solar regulations came up at a meeting of the Joint [ Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage ] the other day. If we are going to regulate solar farms, which are less intrusive, why are we not doing it for these enormous turbines?
The Minister of State said she wants me to kick the Bill down the road for 12 months but I am not agreeing to that. I am pressing this Bill. I believe we need to move on it now as we have been dancing around it for long enough. As I said in my opening contribution, what is delaying this is how Government, senior officials and industries are going to explain to communities that they are going to have to scrap the World Health Organization guidelines. That is not good enough. The first job we have here every day is to protect the health and welfare of the people who send us here. We are all Teachtaí Dála, whether we are Ministers, the Taoiseach, backbenchers, in opposition or whatever. That is our first job.
The WHO guidelines are the standard. That is what we should be achieving and we should not be afraid to stick by them. I appeal to Deputies on all sides of the House to work together. If they want to amend the Bill, I am open to doing that. This is my first crack at it. I do not have the resources of a Department to draft this but I think most people will admit it is the best stab at one that has been made here in the past 15 years. Do not kick to touch. I am pressing the Bill to a vote.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-11-27/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:23+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-11-27