Una Duggan

And I have a whole list of things that we need government to really do to try to include better implementation.

But the problem is now we still have developer-led wind farm planning onshore, which ends up getting stuck in the planning process where

If this sensitivity mapping is done, then perhaps it wouldn't be just, you know, if it was adhered to, that it wouldn't be just, you know, people making deals on the ground.

Well, what we did, Philip, was we produced and published in 2015 a map for terrestrial avian sensitivity to onshore wind.

So what that did was identify areas of low, medium and high sensitivity of wind firms to wind.

birds in known locations.

So we mapped the distribution of the birds and then assessed their ecology as to how are they affected by the different activities that come with construction and operation of a wind farm.

Well, what we did then was say, right, hooper swans do this here, but how do they interact with wind farms?

So not all birds are impacted by wind farms in the same way.

It can be different impacts or there can be no impacts.

So it really depends.

You have to look at the ecology of the species.

So it's quite a detailed process.

So it took us a few years to do this.

And it was the first time it was done in Ireland, but it's been done all over Europe.

And it is recommended by the European Commission to do sensitivity mapping, especially with wind, but it could also be done with forestry and others.

So what happened was we published the plan.

We rolled it out to all the local authorities on their GIS, their computer systems to look at different areas.

And we tried to encourage the Department of the Environment to include this in requirements for where, you know, to just make sure that wind farm developers and those involved are informed.

And no, they didn't.