Wind Energy Guidelines
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-24
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Joanne Collins (SF), Agricultural Panel

I thank the Minister for his response. It is great to see that he is not just reading off a script and that he is engaging with this. It is fantastic to see that there are projects going ahead that are going to increase our capacity for holding this energy. As I said, however, it is putting the cart before the horse. Is there any way the Minister would put a pause on these proposals to put more wind energy in until the grid is at a stage where it can hold that energy and where curtailment costs are not going to be added to people's bills?
The second issue is the position or places where they are put. In Limerick county, 70% of the land mass is preferred for wind energy. That is madness. We could be covered in wind turbines when, at the same time, we are trying to look at the offshore energy. Shannon Foynes Port is a fantastic facility for offshore. It is the deepest port in Europe, and it has unbelievable facilities. I have been there. I have seen its plans a couple of times. We could definitely look into getting the designated maritime area plans, DMAPs, a little bit more quickly so that we could move from the south east around to the west coast and look at maybe getting it offshore and stop congesting our rural communities with wind turbines.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:41+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-24