Rare Birds: Court Scotches Wind Farm Proposal to Prevent Inevitable Bird Slaughter

Courts that aren’t biased in favour of the wind industry are rare birds, indeed. Slowly but surely, however, the law is catching up with the scope and scale of the environmental and societal harm caused whenever these things get speared into rural communities, farmland and forests. Ireland is no exception.

The Emerald Isle has been overrun with industrial wind turbines, with the aid of bent bureaucrats and counsellors on the take. There’s been plenty of inevitable opposition from pro-farming and pro-community groups, but victories have been few and far between. Until now, that is.

In November the Irish government was slammed with a €5 million fine for failing to apply its very own environmental standards at a wind farm in County Galway, which turned into an environmental disaster: Irish Government Slammed with €5m Fine Over Wind Farm’s Environmental Disaster

Following that rather embarrassing setback, a wind power outfit in Waterford was brought to heel for pushing the envelope over the size of its turbines: Busted: Irish Wind Project Slammed For Breaching EU Environmental Directives

In an effort to avoid the grinding, thumping cacophony these things generate, a couple of horticulturalists, Klaus Balz and Hanna Heubach, took the wind power outfit that was determined to destroy their lives all the way to the Supreme Court, and clocked a brilliant victory: Vindicated: Supreme Court Slams Developer For Ignoring Wind Turbine Noise Effects on Neighbours

Now, another pro-community group has bagged another brilliant result, with the High Court scotching a proposal that would have led to the inevitable slaughter of one of Ireland’s apex, avian predators, the hen harrier.

[Note to Ed: They don’t call them the ‘fightin’ Irish nothing!!]

Cork-Kerry wind farm permission quashed over impact on hen harrier
Irish Examiner
Ann O’Loughlin
20 December 2019

Planning permission for a 14-turbine wind farm between two villages in Cork and Kerry has been quashed by the High Court over its potential impact on the hen harrier.

Mr Justice Denis McDonald granted the order to the Sliabh Luachra Against Ballydesmond Windfarm Committee over the November 2018 Bord Pleanála permission to Silverbirch Renewables for the wind farm on elevated ground between Gneeveguilla in Kerry and Ballydesmond in Cork.

Silverbirch and Kerry Co Council, which had refused planning permission, were notice parties in the case.

The committee claimed, among other things, there had been a failure to carry out an appropriate assessment or environmental impact assessment in accordance with national and European law.

Concerns were also raised over the impact of the development on the hen harrier and freshwater pearl mussel due to effects on water quality of the River Blackwater which is near the site.

The board and Silverbirch opposed the challenge.

Mr Justice McDonald found the committee’s case in relation to the freshwater mussel had not been made out.

However, he said it succeeded in relation to the hen harrier to the extent that it was unclear from the Bord Pleanála inspector’s report how a conclusion could have been reached that all of the potential impacts on the bird had been satisfactorily resolved during the assessment stage.

He quashed the decision and will hear later from the parties as to whether it should be sent back to the board for reconsideration.
Irish Examiner