'Our precious Mayo landscape is being sacrificed for Big Tech'

A community group has said it is "extremely concerned " about the number of large-scale windfarms that are being proposed for the North Mayo area.

Lacken/Ballycastle Landscape Protection Group has claimed there could be up to "100 towering wind turbines" in the area if planning permission is granted for the various proposals, which include 29 turbines at Glenora, 21 at Tyrawley (Lacken), eight at Keerglen, "potentially 22 at Clydagh and undetermined numbers at Carrowcullen and Carrowmacshane".

"The question arises as to where this fits into the planning spectrum in an area that until very recently was on the UNESCO World Heritage Site Tentative List, i.e., the Céide Fields and the Boglands of North and West Mayo."

The group noted that the Mayo County Development Plan 2022-'28 provided for three designations in relation to windfarms, namely 'suitable', 'unsuitable' and 'open to consideration'. 

"While the scenic areas of West Mayo such as, Westport, Achill, Louisburgh, etc. were designated as unsuitable for windfarms, areas of North Mayo were not so designated. These scenic areas are designated ‘open to consideration’. Given their significance, they should clearly have been designated as ‘unsuitable for development’. 

"We believe that this dramatic turnaround in the status and position of this location of outstanding natural beauty and unique, world-renowned archaeological heritage is a matter of public interest and public policy that needs to be investigated and properly explained. 

"A Freedom of Information request by this group has established that Mayo County Council failed to respond to several correspondences from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage inviting the council to submit an application to have the Céide Fields and the Boglands of North Mayo maintained on the UNESCO Tentative List. To date, no satisfactory explanation has been offered by Mayo County Council as to the reasons not to re-apply other than to claim there was a lack of local support. 

"There is, however, no substantive evidence to support this contention or no evidence that the council took any meaningful, proactive steps to engage with the wider community to elicit or garner support. Subsequent to the abandonment of the Céide Fields from the UNESCO list, a plethora of applications and potential applications for windfarms in the area has surfaced. If the Céide Fields and surrounding boglands had retained UNESCO tentative status (as it ought), there would have been no windfarm applications in the Ballycastle/Lacken area as they would have no prospect of success. A reasonable person can only assume that the council’s failure to advocate for a listing on the UNESCO list had a more cynical motive, that of removing the perceived obstacles for windfarms in the area."

The group said the number of proposed windfarms had the potential to be "extremely damaging to the environment, landscape, archaeology, and traditional rural way of life" in the Ballycastle/Lacken area.

"Not to mention the negative health implications by way, of noise, shadow flicker and infrasound on those people living close to the turbines," they added. "The explosive growth of data centres in this country to meet the insatiable needs of Big Tech, and their requirement for massive amounts of electricity, is driving the headlong rush for windfarms in North Mayo and other areas.

"Last year alone, Ireland's energy hungry data centres consumed more electricity than all of its urban areas combined. They used up a staggering 21% of the country’s electricity and this is expected to rise to 31% in the next three years. By contrast, the average electric consumption by data centres throughout Europe is just 2.7%. 

"It is well known that the vast proliferation of data centres increases the price that ordinary consumers pay for electricity and is one of the reasons why Ireland has amongst the highest electricity charges in Europe. Our political establishment is bowing the knee to the Big Tech sector whilst in that process is sacrificing our areas of incalculable archaeological worth, and the natural, scenic coastal landscape of the Ballycastle/Lacken area."

The group noted that North Mayo had been "subject to restrictive planning policy for residential housing" for many years, but there appeared to be a different set of rules for windfarms.

"By granting planning permission to large windfarms while simultaneously refusing permission to local residents (usually on the visual amenity grounds) to build family homes is grossly unfair and unjust. This reflects the indifference of our politicians and planners to this area which has been neglected for years and is subject to depopulation and decline. It also represents a prioritising of corporate interests to those of the preservation of our archaeological heritage, our precious landscape, our natural environment and our pristine coastal scenery."

The group said the proliferation of windfarms in the area would "lead to the degradation" of the Céide Fields, the world renowned Neolithic site. 

"It will also have a negative impact on Downpatrick Head with its panoramic natural scenery and rare geological features which is now a major signature point on the Wild Atlantic Way. Also negatively impacted will be the beaches and strands at Lacken and Kilcummin, the Lacken Salt Marsh and Kilcummin Head. 

"These areas are of considerable ecological significance and this has been recognised in their designation status under the Special Area of Conservation (SAC)."

The group accused Mayo politicians and planners of being "apathetic" to the threat to the Céide Fields.

"Instead of preserving and enriching our unique natural assets, our untarnished natural landscape and our scenic coastlines, it appears that our political establishment are content to acquiesce in its degradation and will be content to oversee these windfarms and steer them into being. In the words of our most influential and celebrated Mayo journalist, John Healy “it’s time to shout STOP.

"In this context, it is time firstly for a full and proper explanation from Mayo County Council for its decision not to apply to retain the UNESCO status of the Céide Fields and North and West Mayo Boglands. Secondly, it is past time for the Mayo County Development Plan to be revised and to actively protect these areas in the same fashion as those of West Mayo by redesignating these areas as unsuitable for development."