Around 80 people have attended a public meeting near Rooskey tonight amid serious concern over a wind farm planned for the area.
Ballyfeeney Green Energy has lodged a controversial planning application for six turbines, measuring around 160 metres high, around Ballyfeeney, which is located between Scramogue and Kilglass.
Roscommon County Council is due to decide by December 23 whether to give it the go-ahead.
The public meeting is taking place in Kilglass GAA club this evening.
It's being organised by Ballyfeeney Action Group. The group's chairman, Conor Maher, told the meeting he's not against wind energy in general but says the government needs to update its guidelines on their size, setback distances, etc.
The group's secretary, Rory Doyle, told the meeting the planning application is now live and the public have until October 19 to lodge an objection.
Local man Liam Lawe said Kilglass Lake, a major tourism amenity, would be destroyed if the wind farm goes ahead. He said fishermen have told him they will no longer visit the lake if the turbines are erected. He said they would affect employment.
He said the turbines would completely dominate the whole area, given their size. He said the wind turbines are not well set back from roads and properties - with the views of homeowners greatly impacted.
He said 11 houses would have two turbines within 1km of them and three would have four wind turbines within 1km of them.
Ballyfeeney National School, the meeting heard, would have a turbine within only 600 metres of the premises.
Jonathan Battye, a member of Ballyfeeney Action Group, raised concerns about the impact the wind farm would have on water quality in the area. He said the project would take 18 months to build - and there were "plenty of things to go wrong".
He said it's very likely something will go wrong. He said there were concerns about the purity of water, the security of wells, and the operation of pumps, if the turbines are allowed to be built.
He said water should be of the highest quality, as it's given to children, and he's not happy the wind farm would not impact on that.
Conor Maher spoke about his concerns about the health impacts the turbines would have. He said people who'd lived near other wind farms had reported sleep disturbance, stress and anxiety as a result.
He said they cause noise pollution, vibration and shadow flicker.
He said Lanesboro's big chimney is 80 metres high - noting these turbines would be twice that, at 160 metres. He said the spire in Dublin is only 120 metres' tall - saying you'd need another 12-storey building on top of it to reach the height of the Ballyfeeney turbines.
He said the turbines planned for the area were "overkill".
He played at the meeting the sound of a "swoosh" from a rotating wind turbine.
He spoke about his concerns about 'infrasound', which he says is barely audible but penetrates houses, makes people feel sea-sick and is particularly detrimental to children with autism. He said a number of children would live within 2km of the wind farm.
He said houses would be devalued by the wind turbines.
Eddie Campbell told the meeting he's concerned about the impact they'd have on wildlife, such as peregrine falcons, bats and barn owls, noting how they are present in the area at the moment.
He said there had been a very large clearance of forestry in the area. He said there would be habitat loss as a result of the wind farm.
He said a lot of species would be "permanently erased" from the area due to the 18-month construction of the turbines.
Rory Doyle said Ballyfeeney Green Energy was invited to attend the meeting but declined, as they planned different consultation with the community.
Mr Doyle called for the turbines to be "put at sea", where they would be much more productive and less intrusive.
He said a number of clinics would be held to show people how to lodge submissions and what to put in them, before the deadline of October 19. A sheet was given to the public at tonight's meeting to provide information on the submission process.
Diarmuid Sutton, the principal of Ballyfeeney National School, which has around 100 pupils, said the school was misrepresented in the planning application, regarding contact between Ballyfeeney Green Energy and the school.
He said the board of the school is against the wind turbines being developed as planned.
Independent councillor Tom Crosby said he was disappointed he and his council colleagues were unsuccessful in their call for a decision on the turbines to be put on hold until the state's wind turbine guidelines are updated.
He said off-shore is the place to put wind turbines. He said it's "unthinkable" and "scandalous" they are proposed in high-amenity areas like Ballyfeeney and the surrounding region.
He said he would do everything in his power to prevent the Ballyfeeney wind farm from going ahead. He said he's passionate about stopping it, saying it's not an area for this development, adding there's lots of coastline more suitable.
He said he would "stand and be counted" in his opposition to the wind farm.
He said he would be lodging an objection to the planning application and urged his council colleagues to do likewise.
Sinn Féin TD for Roscommon-Galway, Claire Kerrane, said she would be "very happy" to make a submission and would also make contact with her constituency colleagues in the Dáil, Independent Michael Fitzmaurice and Fianna Fáil's Martin Daly, in the hope of having cross-party objection to the project.
She said surveys of bats and other wildlife in the area should be conducted.
She reminded people, if planning is granted by Roscommon County Council on December 23rd, they would have four weeks to lodge an appeal. She said decisions are sometimes made just two days before Christmas and people need to be prepared for that.
Fianna Fáil councillor Seán Moylan said his views are similar to Councillor Crosby's. He said the height of the turbines are "absolutely unacceptable" and raised grave concerns about their proximity to Ballyfeeney National School.
He also advocated for off-shore wind farms as opposed to in areas such as this.
He said he's concerned the state's updated turbine guidelines may not relax the current situation - and may even be more 'loose', given the drive towards wind energy from the EU.
He's calling on the council to reject the planning application.
