One of the country’s best known entertainers, Tommy Tiernan is objecting to new plans for a €1.4 billion wind farm comprising what another local group has described as “30 Eiffel Tower sized turbines” off the coast of Co Galway and Co Clare.
The TV chatshow host is one of 177 third parties to lodge submissions with An Bord Pleanála on the Fuinneamh Sceirde Teoranta plan to construct the 450MW Sceirde Rocks wind farm with 30 turbines over 1,000ft high located 5km to 11.5m km off the west coast, with Carna in Co Galway the nearest settlement.
The planned first offshore wind farm is to power 350,000 Irish homes, save an estimated 550,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, and invest up to €70 million in local community initiatives, its promoter has said.
The wind turbines are to reach a tip height of 325 metres, which is just short of the 330-metre tall Eiffel Tower in Paris.
If planning laws were changed, obsolete offices could be converted into housing to ease Dublin’s rental crisis
Johnny Lappin: ‘I got scammed by a rogue so-called roofing contractor. I foolishly paid him in cash’
The silence of the CEOs in the face of Donald Trump’s tariff chaos
Big pharma sees positive side effects in Trump tariffs
In his objection, Mr Tiernan said: “I’m objecting to the proposed offshore wind farm near Carna, Connemara, County Galway on the grounds of desecration of that area of natural beauty.”
The actor, comedian and podcaster said: “Culture is judged on how it protects areas and ideals such as this. Allowing such a project to go ahead when there are many more suitable sites either much further offshore or inland would be a totally irresponsible and disgusting thing to do.
“There has to be more to our country than a utilitarian exploitation of where we live.”
Catherine Connolly, an Independent TD for Galway West, told the appeals board “I have received numerous representations from a diverse range of people expressing their very serious concerns about the proposed development.”
The Carna-based community group Conamara Coastal Protection the board that it has concerns over the impact on a person “looking out on a horizon of 30 Eiffel Tower sized turbines in the middle of an area of outstanding natural beauty”.
The objection states “that there is concern of a possible loss of value in property assets due to the industrialisation of this beautiful landscape”.
The applicant company is a joint venture between the Australia-based Macquarie Group and global infrastructure investor, the Ontario Teachers Pension Board.
An Bord Pleanála confirmed on Monday that the application continues to be “live” as a news report last week reported that the project was not to proceed.
Accounts filed by Fuinneamh Sceirde Teoranta show that the company had already invested €31.7 million on project costs in 2023 and 2024. The company had accumulated losses of €35.9 million at the end of March 2024 as it steered the project during various regulatory hurdles.
