I am not against wind turbines. However, I am against wind turbines that do not allow people to have a night's sleep. I have been trying to think of a way to get through to those in government in order that they will understand how important it is that they listen to this. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, is alongside the Taoiseach. In addition to them, how many parents, grandparents and brothers and sisters of young children are here? When young children come home from the maternity hospital, you spend the first eight to 12 weeks trying to get them into a sleep pattern. You are hanging for sleep and they are trying to sleep. That is what those people up in the Gallery have been putting up with since 2006. There is no end to their inability to get a night's sleep. Why? It is because energy companies' profits are being put before people's lives.

A study carried out here showed that in order to make the number of wind farms there are in Ireland viable, a 100 m high turbine must be kept 400 m away from homes. In any other European country, the ratio is 100 m to 1 km. It is set at 100 m to 400 m here because Ireland has a smaller land area and that is what is needed to make it viable. The profitability of wind farms is coming down and they are showing losses. Why is that? It is because the ratio is being kept at 100 m to 400 m. The companies would like it to be set at 100 m to 200 m. That is what is wrong. Offshore turbines are a better option because they are located away from people's homes. Every time the Taoiseach sees a wind turbine going around or a person from the 20 counties represented in the Gallery today, he should remember when he brought his babies home, hoping that they would sleep one night in order that he could get a night's sleep. That is what the Government has been putting these people through since 2006 with outdated regulation.

The Irish courts have ruled that wind turbine noise is a nuisance and that the neighbours of wind farms are being deprived of sleep. The High Court confirmed that the Government got it wrong. The noise guidance and planning conditions that are in place have not protected neighbours' sleep. That is what is wrong here. The Taoiseach has said that this is not an urban thing or a rural thing/ However, there are no wind farms in urban areas; they are located in rural areas. We are asking for the Government to get the distance right. It should go with 100 m to 1 km, let these people get a night's sleep and let them have a future. Can the Taoiseach imagine his children going to school without having had a night's sleep? Can he imagine someone driving a truck, a bus or any other vehicle without having had a night's sleep? That puts other people in danger, but those to whom I refer have to go to work to feed their children and protect their families. If this regulation is not changed to ensure that the ratio is least 100 m to 1 km, the Government will not protect the families who are here today.

The Deputy is giving me awful flashbacks to sleepless nights. If I do not get one tonight, I will know he has jinxed me. I thank him very much for raising this important issue. He does not need to tell me or anyone in this Government about listening to people. His language suggested that he listens and the rest of us do not. That is unfair to people who listen to communities all of the time. I am listening to the communities here today. I am also being honest with them, as I am sure the Deputy is as well. Renewable energy is needed. I do not believe there is anyone in the Gallery who is suggesting it is not.

What I said was not about wind turbines. I said that the climate emergency is not divided between rural and urban areas. Regrettably, there is sometimes a real effort in this House to suggest that it is, although I am not necessarily saying the Deputy was making such an effort today, and that the climate emergency is an idea from those people up in Dublin. The climate emergency is very real. I was at Lough Funshinagh in rural County Roscommon and have seen the very serious and difficult situation people are facing there. That is the point I am making. When it comes to the climate emergency, we need to try to bring communities with us and to help because we want to protect those families. We want that baby who is struggling to sleep at night to have a community and a planet to inherit. That is why we are all here. That is why we all come to work every day.

We are listening and we are going to revise the 2006 wind guidelines once and for all. I have outlined the process we are undertaking to allow us to do that. I am pleased that the process is finally advancing well.

The Climate Action Plan 2024, which the Cabinet approved literally only a couple of hours ago, contains an annex of actions - this is for the benefit of the people in the Gallery - that says what we are going to do this year. There is a specific action which states that we are going to finalise the revised wind guidelines for publication in quarter 4 of this year. When the guidelines are published, there will be a further opportunity for Deputy O'Donoghue's constituents and the people in the 20 counties that are represented in the Gallery to have their say on them. This will be done by means of further public consultation and input. We will publish draft guidelines and we will give people an opportunity to have their say. The Department of housing will lead on that. I am happy, as are my colleagues, to have engagement with Community Environmental Protection Alliance, CEPA, and with others who have an interest in this matter. Let us try to get it right once and for all this year.

I am not a climate change denier. I know we need energy, but I also know that we need people to enjoy this country and have the opportunity to enjoy the future. Nobody should be left behind. New South Wales in Australia issued an energy noise guidance at 35 dB LA90. This is designed to protect people's health. The Government here continues to allow 45 dB LA90, or double the loudness. The authorities in Australia are getting it right because they want to protect people. The Taoiseach said he wanted to protect the children. It is all right to protect the children and the babies, but we must also protect the mothers and fathers, the grandfathers and grandmothers and the brothers and sisters from what is happening. The Government should trust the science. Since 2006, data has been provided by scientific people to show that living too close to wind turbines causes health problems. That is scientific data that has been built up over a period of almost 18 years. However, the Government has still not changed the guidance and regulations relating to these turbines. These people would not be here today if the Government had done so. We are asking it to ensure that, at a minimum, that the noise be reduced to 35 decibels and that the distance that turbines have to be from houses be increased from 100 m to 1 km.

Every time ten people used electricity in Ireland last year, almost four out of ten times that electricity was generated from, in general, onshore wind. This is playing a major part in all of our constituents' and citizens' lives, particularly when they boil the kettle, turn on the light, open the fridge or turn on the television. Ireland is very dependent on this form of energy. Let us be honest about this; we do not want the lights to go out. We need to have an energy supply. Almost 40% of the electricity generated here last year came from these sources of energy.

We need to get the guidelines right. I accept that this has been going on for a long time. I also accept that it has been going on for too long. I want finality to brought to this matter in order that there will be certainty this year in the context of what the revised guidelines are. I want communities, citizens and people to have an opportunity to have a say in the draft guidelines, and then I want us to publish the final guidelines this year. We are listening, we are engaging and of course we will follow the science.