"The ecosystem service provided by upland habitats should be assessed before any consideration is given to building wind farms on such sensitive sites. The construction of giant wind turbines on sensitive upland habitats and particularly on deep peatland in the West of Ireland damages the environment and adds to global warming. I have long argued that deep peatland is a natural global sink for CO2 and disrupting these sensitive habitats with the construction of giant turbines and their associated concrete foundations, access roads, pylons, borrow pits and cabling trenches, simply destroys the peat bog and releases vast quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere, rendering the whole development CO2 negative in terms of its impact on climate change. Such developments also prevent the peat bog from continuing to function as a carbon sump, as well as destroying important habitats for wildlife. Allowing wind farms to be built on such sites is the Irish equivalent of cutting down rain forests in the Amazon. Ireland has a unique resource in these precious upland areas and the service they provide to the environment both nationally and globally should be carefully assessed before any consideration is given to allowing their disruption."
Struan Stevenson, MEP
Conservative Euro MP for Scotland
Vice President of the ruling EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament
President of the Sustainability Intergroup in the European Parliament
"Please, no! As an Irish-American wanting to visit your country, one of the appeals is Irelands Natural Beauty. Please don't mar it up with technology. I know of the economic struggles, but the impact may be much more permanent with the appeal to us as tourists. God Bless Ireland, the beauty and the rolling landscapes unmarred by large wind turbines!"
Kate & Bob Tobin
Newport Daily News
Tiverton, RI USA
"This development is proposed to be located directly adjacent to the west boundary of Glendree Bog SAC 1912, which is legally protected under EU Habitats Directive. The large foundations of the proposed windfarm and the disturbance caused during construction will have a negative impact on the hydrological unit that is Glendree Bog SAC....Under the International Convention on Biodiversity and as a member of the EU, Ireland has signed up to halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010. This target cannot be achieved for peatlands, if windfarms are allowed to substantially disrupt the habitat refuge of species"
Sarah Malone
Conservation Officer
Irish Peatland Conservation Council
"I am astonished that the Irish Government would knowingly allow this windfarm to be considered knowing the environmental disasters that are inevitable. All of that aside, they are destroying one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world that draws tourist from the all over."
Kathleen Souza
Dept. of Environmental Health & Safety
Roger Williams University USA
"A wind farm is an industrial installation, and we should not be wrecking what remains of our beautiful landscape with ugly white masts and whirring blades. Micro-projects on brownfield sites are fine, as are large arrays far out to sea; anything else should be treated with scepticism as a matter of policy. And if a wind farm interferes with a bog, then it should simply not get built, for it is either partly or wholly defeating its own purpose."
- quoted from Ecoworrier Sunday Business Post, 25 January 2009.
