The next three are Deputies Brassil, Fitzpatrick and Martin Kenny. I must cut it at that. I have no choice.

In November, I raised an issue of the new guidelines for wind farm development and the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, gave me a commitment they would be published for public consultation early in the new year. I consider that it is now early in the new year and ask whether the Minister can give me a definitive date on which they will go to public consultation.

I thank Deputy Brassil for the question. The reason for the delay is because the World Health Organization, WHO, revised the noise aspects of the guidelines last year. As a result, the EU decided to implement them in a directive that was issued only in October of last year and we thought it prudent to put them into the guidelines that we were putting out to public consultation. The public consultation will now happen this year. It will happen in the next couple of weeks and last for a short enough period. We should have those guidelines in force by the end of the first half of this year.

Over the past 12 months, I have asked this question of the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, and the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy. In fairness, the Minister of State, Deputy English, is doing a big job on it. Local needs have been in the guidelines since 2005. The EU has taken Ireland to court over the way it has conducted itself. I believe, in 2016, the Government informed the EU that it would review the local needs situation. Many people in this country want to live in rural areas and, because of these local needs provisions, they are being deprived.

I thank the Deputy. We got the question.

All the local authorities-----

The clock is relevant.

-----are making their own decisions. This is a national matter.

The Minister is an intelligent man. He knows what the Deputy is saying and he will answer.

I would appreciate if the Minister of State, Deputy English, could answer the question.

The Minister will answer the question.

The 2005 guidelines are being reviewed off the back of the Flemish Decree. We have a working group in the Department. It is working with the Commission as well and taking guidance from it. We incorporated some of the thinking into the national planning framework, which is now in law. There was a meeting, I believe last week, of the review group that is looking at how we will review the guidelines and when these are reviewed, they will be communicated to local authorities as appropriate.