We have heard many contributions in these Houses on the rapid escalation in the development of solar farms. Nowhere is this more evident than in County Longford, where we now have a wild west scenario and the beautiful county is beset by ravenous speculators and profiteers. Fuelling the pillaging is the planned ESB battery storage site at the former power station facility in Lanesborough, with plans for an 896 acre battery energy storage enclosure. This will be one of the largest such facilities in Europe.

The big cash cow now is trying to get planning permission for solar and wind energy projects as close as possible to this battery site. The latest application is for the 247-acre Carrowroe and Aghaloughan solar farm. Less than 15 km up the road from this location is the 321-acre Foigha solar farm. A stone's throw from that, we have the 275-acre Ballymahon solar farm. These are all within a radius of 10 km to 15 km of each other. People living in Lanesborough or its immediate hinterland risk the real prospect of being surrounded by what will be the largest single solar farm in the country, one totalling over 850 acres. This runs alongside Bord na Móna's plans for a massive 4,600-acre wind farm.

The Longford solar farm plans are 50% bigger than the largest current solar site in Ireland, which is Ballymacarney in County Meath. We understand that is on the market now for €250 million. In essence, then, we have two companies founded in the 1930s to drive development and industry in this country, Bord na Móna and the ESB, that will potentially be sitting on assets worth €1.5 billion in a matter of years. Ultimately, they could sell these farms in time to come to a foreign entity, and, in doing so, sell on nearly 6,000 acres of County Longford.

None of these sites or planning applications should be viewed in isolation. Instead, they need to be seen for what they are: a massive underhanded effort to establish a major energy-generating operation in a small rural area. All these planning applications are piecemeal and individual, with the net aim of ultimately securing planning for a cumulative energy production proposal that is patently at odds with the community. Anybody familiar with rural Ireland will say that the pace of solar applications has been too much and the recklessness of it creates the possibility of landing an intolerable burden on a small community.

Obviously, I accept that I am a Government representative, but, simply, the scale of wind and solar energy applications in this country has been allowed to go unchecked. We are now facing an intolerable situation, as is borne out in County Longford. I appeal to the Taoiseach and the Government at large to take soundings and to say "Stop" at this juncture because we need to take stock of what is happening. The prospect of 6,000 acres of County Longford being sold in time to come to a foreign entity surely has to be enough for everybody in a position of power to stand up and say it is too much.