Chapter 1 – Introduction
MEANINGFUL PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Onus to implement submissions: Kindly note that the public are invited participants in this process. Please also note that people have voluntarily given of their time to do all of this work on a pro bono basis.
Ireland and the EU have signed up to numerous international conventions, which guarantee public participation. The Aarhus Convention (ratified in June 2012) is particularly pertinent in this regard.
Having regard to these facts, we are most concerned that this is not merely a box ticking exercise and that these submissions be fully considered. In the interests of transparency it would be essential that where important points within this and other voluntary submissions not be taken on board, that full and proper explanations as to why they are omitted are provided. Indeed the absence of such may provide clear grounds for judicial review.
Strategic Environmental Assessment: we inquire whether any strategic environmental assessment [SEA] was conducted as part of the County Development Plan [CDP] which takes an overall look at items of where aggregates are to come from and where sustainable energy is to come from. We have seen a plethora of developer led applications for solar parks and wind energy installations. This is extremely problematic in that there is a significant land-take during times when arable land is extremely important. Experience has shown that applications for individual solar installations are looked at in isolation and not as a whole. The same goes for wind proposals. When at the same time deep-bore geothermal has been ignored despite the fact that it is far more sustainable than either wind or solar (both of which can only provide intermittent energy while geothermal can provide constant (dispatchable) energy.
Agricultural/ arable land is an extremely valuable resource for the production of crops. The importance of sustainable homegrown crops has recently come to the fore in light of the war in Ukraine. It transpired that Ukraine was supplying vast quantities of cereals to Europe and there is now a very strong likelihood of food shortages as a result of the Russian aggression towards its neighbor Ukraine. It will be noted that Irish farmers were in the spring of 2022 encouraged to sow more cereals to help bridge the gap. In the circumstances, to use up so much finite agricultural land with solar panels would be irresponsible and wrong. Given that so much roof spaces are available to support solar panels, there are alternatives.
Our experience has been that there has been little or no enforcement of planning permissions when they are granted to quarry operators and worse still that there has been little or no enforcement of unauthorised quarries either. This compares to other sectors of society who will likely have a representative from the County Council out to inspect them for the smallest of alleged planning infringements. The environmental and social impacts of poorly regulated quarries have been enormous and will be there forever (unless and in the unlikely event that they are filled in). There are usually open water bodies left which: -
- Will be a safety hazard; particularly so for children who often see these as a swimming pool; there have been many drowning’s.
- Act as a pathway to contamination of the groundwater aquifer,
- Deep quarry lakes are a perfect way to dispose of incriminating evidence.
- Are of course also visually obtrusive,
Sustainable Development: We note that the development plan places an emphasis on sustainable development, which is to be welcomed. There needs to be much more about Deep-bore geothermal energy though.