Today, I am raising the issue of wind farms and their health implications. A number of weeks ago, I was copied into a serious letter from the Communities and Environmental Protection Alliance, CEPA, to the Minister of Health. I am informed that there has been no response, not even an acknowledgement. Representatives from five counties are in the Public Gallery today. They are from Limerick, Mayo, Kilkenny, Wicklow and Offaly, including members of the Stonestown community in County Offaly who live beside the Cloghan wind farm. For more than three years, that community has raised noise complaints with the local authority, the HSE and the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. The crucial point is that the HSE environmental health service examined the matter, visited the community and requested a public health investigation into the complaints. The public health section denied it. One part of the health service was looking for an investigation but the Department's public health section denied it. I want to understand why. The HSE is our expert public health agency. If its own environmental health service believes a matter warrants further investigation, what justification does the Department of Health have to refuse its request?

This is not an isolated issue. In Limerick, there are long-running complaints relating to turbine noise and shadow flicker in Kilmeedy and Morristown. In County Clare, the HSE investigated a wind farm following complaints and at the request of the local authority. I have a copy of that investigation.

The Tánaiste and I met CEPA a number of years ago and we discussed these complaints. The Taoiseach is on the record 13 years ago saying that there are health implications to wind farms. There is something that I want the Tánaiste and all other Members sitting around the House today to do. There are two children sitting in the Public Gallery with their parents, a 12-year-old and a ten-year-old. I want the Tánaiste to tell them that he is going to sit there and not investigate the issues and hide things until 2030. Their parents get complaints that they have to come to school because their children are falling asleep in class. If it was the Tánaiste's child, how would he feel as a parent? Would he deny this for 13 years? Would he deny it for ten minutes if it was his child?

It has been proven without doubt that there are health implications to wind turbines in certain areas. I am not against wind turbines in areas where they do not have health implications, but this one does. So, when the Tánaiste is giving his reply, I want him to think of the children and families this is affecting.

I thank Deputy O'Donoghue. It is not the first time he has raised this issue. I acknowledge his genuine interest and active involvement in this issue.

I am consistently on the record on the importance of publishing new guidelines in relation to wind energy and wind farms. I am a believer, as I believe the Deputy said he was, in the switch to renewable energy. It is really important. We have seen what happens when we live in a country that is too reliant on fossil fuel. We all know that. We can have debates about how to make that transition but our country is still addicted to fossil fuel. The impact of that on consumers and citizens in the Deputy's constituency and mine every time somebody makes a decision thousands of kilometres from here is not an abstract thing any more. It has happened not once, but twice in the last five years and plunged us into challenges like the cost-of-living crisis and real difficulties for people. We all accept that point and are not rowing on that point or debating it.

What the Deputy is saying is that it is important that there be guidelines that are clear, evidence based and published. The Deputy will remember the Planning and Development Act, which passed through this House at the end of 2024. That replaced ministerial guidelines with a new structure of national planning statements. It is a more robust and better process. Work is nearing conclusion on a national planning statement in relation to this issue. That needs to provide certainty and clarity on who can and cannot build a wind farm, where they can be built, the distance, the flicker and a number of the other issues the Deputy has raised.

I hear different things. I am not getting into a row or dispute with anybody, but I am told that in Offaly, for example, the council has been extensively engaging. Perhaps people have different views but that is what I have heard from my engagement with Deputy Clendennen on this. It is important that people engage. It is important that the planning authority engage and take on board the views of local communities. It is most important that we have clarity, as we need renewable energy. We need to make that switch with a sense of urgency. In fairness to everybody, including the children, communities and constituents the Deputy referenced, settling the question once and for all and having clarity as to what an appropriate distance is will be useful. We had Private Members' legislation on this matter from, I believe, Deputy Stanley. The Government took the decision not to oppose that but to have a timed amendment to provide that space for the new national planning statement to conclude. On foot of Deputy O'Donoghue raising this matter, I have asked the Minister, Deputy Browne, and the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, to revert to him.

I thank the Tánaiste. The issue here is the inconsistency. In the Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown area, all noise complaints received by the local authority are investigated by the HSE. Residents in Offaly and Limerick are wondering why this other approach is being taken in their case and why it depends on what county one lives in whether one gets investigations. It is inconsistency that is going on here. Why should access to a health investigation depend on the county where somebody lives? We can see that it is different in Dún Laoghaire.

It has been more than two years since the Tánaiste met CEPA and the people with the wind farms. I want the Tánaiste to meet them and the people in Offaly. I will attend as well. I would also like to have the Minister for Health there to meet these people and to see if we can relieve concerns and meet young people and their families' entitlement to a night's sleep. This cannot go on for more years. We have been talking about this for years. We must think of the health implications and how we can help. Will the Tánaiste agree to meet CEPA and family groups with the Minister for Health and me?

I am at this long enough to know not to start making diary commitments on the floor of the Dáil. However, the Government will continue to engage with communities on this issue. Indeed, the Deputy has referenced some of my own constituents. Obviously, I engage with my own constituents. I am happy to do that also.

I am not across the level of detail the Deputy has just given me - let me reflect on that - but the point he makes around inconsistency in general is an issue we want to stamp out. A planning system does well when it is consistent. That is one of the reasons we changed the rural planning guidelines this week. It is one of the reasons we are changing the exempted development guidelines. Particularly in a small country, we should not have a different approach to planning from one place versus another above and beyond normal norms that local authorities may wish to have.

The purpose of moving to national planning statements is to move away from those inconsistencies. I accept, and it would be wrong and disingenuous to suggest anything to the contrary, that it has taken a very significant period of time to get to the new wind guidelines. It is true. I know it is a cause of significant frustration for communities, as it was when Deputy O'Donoghue and I had that meeting. However, I would point out that a lot has changed since, including the Planning and Development Act. It is really important that these new standards be up to date with the best possible information, and-----

Will the Tánaiste meet us?

-----I expect that to happen this year. I will certainly arrange for a meeting to take place with the Government in terms who the appropriate people are. I will revert to the Deputy.