Search Results for 'wind energy'

A proposal to build a 48-turbine wind farm in Cluddaun near Moygownagh was refused permission by An Bord Pleanála on Wednesday.

Topform, the Gort-based makers of creative work surface solutions, has been named as a finalist in the year’s Small Firms Association Awards in the Manufacturing Category, sponsored by competitive energy provider Energia.

Independent councillor Seamus Weir, who has been a leading adversary of the proposed GridWest project, brought forward a motion to the October meeting of Mayo County Council calling for the council to rescind its Wind Energy Strategy Plan and to review its Renewable Energy Strategy.

There were clear dividing lines drawn in the Mayo County Council on Monday afternoon when a controversial draft policy on ‘Community Benefit Contributions for Certain Major Developments’ was passed, by a vote of 26-6. Excepting Fine Gael where all councillors support the motion, the two other political parties in the council split on the vote, with Sinn Féin’s Rose Conway-Walsh, Fianna Fáil trio of Al McDonnell, Blackie Gavin, and Damien Ryan, and Independent councillors Michael Kilcoyne, Richard Finn, and Michael Holmes all voting for it. Voting against the motion were Fianna Fáil’s Margaret Adams, Jimmy Maloney, and Annie May Reape alongside Sinn Féin’s Gerry Murray and independents Gerry Ginty and Seamus Weir. Cllr Frank Durcan was absent from the meeting. Both Cllr Murray and Cllr Weir led the charge against the proposals at the meeting and both councillors ended up in heated side-debates with other councillors while the topic was being discussed.

Spurred on by the support of 5,600 people from across the county and beyond, Westmeath’s councillors are to once again defy Government recommendations on wind energy.

Westmeath’s newly formed policy on wind energy could be overturned by the Department of the Environment if it is found to be out of step with national policy, it emerged this week.

The suggestion by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation Richard Bruton, that the cost of undergrounding cables in the planned EirGrid development would prevent more balanced regional development, was the type of argument which raised questions about the honesty of those favouring overgrounding of the various projects.

Cllr Harry Barrett has issued a statement in response to An Taoiseach recent comments regarding Cllr Barrett's request, calling on An Taoiseach to focus attention on the need to provide at least 1,000 production jobs in the county town.

Fine Gael TD Michelle Mulherin this week welcomed the announcement by the Minister for Communications, Pat Rabbitte on the commencement of the first phase of public consultation on the proposed Renewable Energy Export Policy and Development Framework.

The company behind the €8bn Greenwire project to export wind energy to the UK has predicted the rate return from the project for Westmeath alone would be €4m per annum - or 40 per cent of the county’s annual rate take.