Minister Regina Doherty, TD

DEAR SIR: Meath, the heritage capital of Ireland, and indeed rural Ireland as a whole, needs to be protected and nurtured and I am committed to working to ensure this happens. Oversized wind turbines have no place in our countryside and I stand with the people of Meath and other counties in the fight against this.

Recently I attended a meeting about new plans for Castlemoore Wind Farm in Meath. Several hundred stakeholders were present, including landowners, business owners and concerned members of the community. I listened carefully to their views and I share their concern about the fact that we are still waiting to see new wind energy planning guidelines from Government.

The technology and scale of wind farms has evolved significantly since the last set of planning guidelines were introduced in 2006.

We need new and appropriate guidelines, which reflect the views of communities; the set back distance of 500m is, quite simply, not adequate.

This partnership Government is taking this issue very seriously and addressing it with urgency.

In the Programme for Government, we commit ourselves to updating the windfarm planning guidelines within three to six months.

The aim is to offer a better balance between the concerns of local communities and the need to invest in indigenous energy projects.

These new planning guidelines will be informed by the public consultation process and best international practice. Families, landowners, businesses and communities alike, deserve to be listened to and I am anxious to ensure that happens.

I know and accept that Ireland needs to move towards producing more green and renewable energy. We need to explore other options, such as hydropower and offshore windfarms.

There is little dispute that green energy is needed in Ireland, but certainly not in the forceful form of colossal and excessive windfarms. I think I speak for many people in rural Meath when I say that we do not want to see oversized turbines located among homes, schools and communities – they have no place in our countryside.