Communities and families affected by wind turbines in their localities are “profoundly frustrated” by a lack of updated guidelines on the construction of turbines, according to one independent TD.
Laois-Offaly’s Carol Nolan said this morning (Monday, October 11) that Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Darragh O’Brien was “unable to to clearly state when” the revised Wind Energy Development Guidelines would come into effect.
A draft version of the revised guideline was published in 2019 as part of a public consultation.
According to Nolan, Minister O’Brien’s department could “only confirm that it is still engaged in a ‘focused review’ of the existing guidelines”.
The current guidelines remain in force until revised measures are introduced.
“We are clearly at the point now where people’s patience has been exhausted. It is almost ridiculous to think that the first public consultation on the impact of wind energy guidelines, especially around wind turbines, began in early December 2019,” Nolan said.
She added: “That consultation closed in February 2020 and yet we are still waiting for a definitive form to be given to Wind Energy Guidelines, which is having a devastating impact on families on communities the length and breadth of the country.”
When the consultation on revising these guidelines was launched in December 2019, the government said that the review was addressing issues including sound/noise; distances from residential areas; shadow flicker [the creation of flickering shadows by rotating turbine blades]; community dividend; and grid connections.
“It is hard for those who do not live near these wind turbine monstrosities to fully appreciate the level of psychological harm they can create, be it from noise or flicker levels,” Nolan claimed.
She said that Minister O’Brien had informed her that the new guidelines would have to be signed-off on in conjunction with the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, as well as by “special environmental assessment consultants”.
“What this clearly says to me is that, unless communities are listened to and their concerns acted upon, then they are very likely going to have to endure the profoundly harmful effects of wind turbines for a long time to come… this is entirely unacceptable,” Nolan argued.
The TD concluded: “Communities must have their concerns addressed. They need respite from these eye-sores and noise creators as a matter of urgency.”