Over the past number of weeks we have seen many conferences taking place about wind energy but the reality is that that there are many communities around the country who are being persecuted because of wind turbines. The Government must immediately review the matter of set back distances and as a minimum it should be a 10 to 1 ratio which is 10 meters for every meter in height. That would mean a 100 meter turbine would have to be located at least 1 kilometre away from the nearest house.
We have seen around the country, the Slieve Bawn area included, the after effects of these sites where people have had to leave their homes at night because of the noise from the turbines. This is total unacceptable to people who have lived their whole lives in peace and quiet and now that has been shattered to appease Europe and that will make fat cats who own a lot of these sites for wind farms.
The Minister needs to move on this problem straight away and I believe that if the Government want to pursue wind energy as an option then I would propose a set back distance of at least 1 kilometre. But my proposal would also be that wind energy should be confined to off shore development or indeed we should look at alternative energy sources. What people must realise that a lot of this so called clean green energy is very expensive, ineffecient and will make Ireland uncompetitive and it will hit people hard in the pocket. It is lovely talking about the ideal world but that ideal world comes at a heavy price.
