The Department of the Environment was yesterday accused of adopting a partisan approach in favour of wind energy and having a disregard to some of the real environmental issues that large wind-farm developments can bring.
The charge has come from Clare County Council in response to new draft Government guidelines aiming to create a six-fold increase in the State's output in wind energy in five years.
The current level of energy supplied by wind farms is just over 2 per cent and the Government is planning to increase that to 13 per cent by 2010, with the draft guidelines ensuring that local authorities identify sites or areas in their statutory development plans for wind-farm development.
Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE), an environmental network, has claimed the draft guidelines fail to protect the scenic landscapes of Ireland's mountains and coasts.
In a submission to the Department of the Environment, Clare County Council has stated that the Government has adopted a "sometimes partisan approach to wind energy with an apparent disregard to some of the real environmental issues that large wind-farm developments can bring".
The council states the real environmental issues that are apparently being disregarded include the visual and physical impacts of wind farms. It says there is a need to adopt a precautionary approach to major developments with unknown environmental impacts on sensitive environments such as upland bogs.
In the submission yesterday endorsed by members of Clare County Council at its January meeting, the local authority states that the guidelines "falsely portray wind energy developments as being more benign than other forms of development".
The council's senior executive planner, Mr Graham Webb, states that the process for the identification of suitable areas for wind energy in the draft guidelines "is not sustainable as it makes an assumption in favour of adverse impacts upon the environmentally sensitive areas".
Mr Webb urges the Government to ensure guidelines "provide clear objective guidance on how to develop policy and select appropriate sites for the development of wind energy projects".
Cllr Tom Prendeville (FF) said yesterday: "I commend Graham Webb on the submission he has made. The guidelines need to be rewritten because the language is too ambiguous and will prove a planner's nightmare."
The submission to the Department by the council coincides with the first wind farm being built in Clare, with Pro Ventum, a German company, completing a seven turbine, 255-metre-high wind farm four kilometres from Kilrush.
The council is proposing for the first time that large tracts of the county, including the Burren, be excluded from wind-farm development.
