This was the seventh in a series of public talks organised by Blue Ireland and Dalkey and Killiney Bay Community Councils over the past four years. Our objective has been to inform the public of the various proposals for wind energy around our coast and to discuss the potential impacts of such development on the marine environment. The need to reduce reliance on fossil fuels is well accepted. But, alongside this, there has been little public debate about the significant risks that construction of large scale, near-shore, wind farm infrastructure would pose to the integrity of our coasts and to coastal communities. This is the gap we seek to address in community events that are open to all.
Professor Iris Möller, Trinity College, Dublin, a coastal geomorphologist, in her presentation entitled Coastal processes in the nearshore – how energy and seabed material moves in shallow water, gave a detailed description of the complexity of morphodynamic impacts – taking into consideration the combined effects of wind, waves, tides, storms, sea level and the topography of the coast. She highlighted the appeal of the coast for humans, but warned about how our exploitation of the coast can have negative consequences when we fail to adequately anticipate the impacts of our actions, as explained HERE. Conversely, she explained, that if we want to adapt sensibly and sustainably, we must continue to observe what nature is actually doing, and advocate for the use of nature-based solutions to respond to our changing climate. While acknowledging that her research on sandbanks derived from her experience on the east coast of the UK, she discussed the likely importance of Irish east coast sandbanks HERE.
Mr Norman Fullam, Maritime Safety and Environmental Protection Specialist, highlighted that many Dubliners remain largely unaware of the location and scale of the proposed Dublin Array offshore wind farm, in spite of the fact that an application for development consent has been lodged with An Coimisiún Pleanála and public consultation is now closed. He drew attention to the absence of publicly available information and stated that in this busy marine environment there is an onus on decision makers to get it right.
Interspersed with references to Dubliners, Ronnie Drew and Luke Kelly, and to James Joyce, Mr Fullam explained that public consultation sessions relating to the proposed Dublin Array were held in South Dublin and Wicklow, leaving people north of the Liffey completely ‘in the dark’. This is inexplicable, given that the points at which the proposed turbines would be closest to shore are Greystones, Co Wicklow and the Howth Head coastal path in Fingal, a notable tourist hot-spot with uninterrupted views of Dublin Bay. He demonstrated, using the developer’s photomontages, how the nearest turbines were obscured or presented from Viewpoints that minimised visibility, further compromising the public consultation process.
In conclusion, Mr Fullam suggested that the combination of technical complexity, limited public engagement and weaknesses in the planning process have resulted in a lack of awareness and absence of debate about the proposal to site such large scale offshore wind infrastructure in Dublin Bay, less than 9km from the Fingal coastline. Although the people of Fingal are probably as yet unaware of this, the proposed development is also to be located along a biodiversity rich sandbank habitat designated as an Important Bird Area by Birdlife International in 2024.
The exposure of this flawed planning process should be of serious concern to us all.