A proposed 22-turbine wind farm in a Cork mountain range known as an “important breeding area” for hen harriers would threaten the birds’ existence, a conservation group has said.
The Nagle Mountains supports the equivalent of up to 8 per cent of the species’ estimated breeding population in Ireland. A 2015 study estimated there were up to 157 breeding pairs of the bird, a “strictly protected species” under EU law, in Ireland.
Coom Green Energy Park submitted a planning application for the wind farm directly to An Bord Pleanála as a “strategic infrastructure development” last December.
The Irish Raptor Study Group (IRSP), which carries out monitoring and research on raptors and owls, submitted a “strong objection” to the proposed development last week. It said the environmental impact assessment report (EIAR) provided by the company had noted the potential effect on the bird.
It said: “The EIAR states that Coom Wind Energy Park has potential for direct effects on hen harrier through during construction direct mortality [at nest sites], disturbance, land cover change, during operation collision mortality and displacement.”
The conservation group said it “refutes and rejects” further statements made in the EIAR that displacement of the bird was “considered unlikely” in the medium to long term.
The IRSP said the development occurred within an area the National Parks and Wildlife Service had identified as an “important non-designated breeding area for hen harrier” as part of the inter-departmental ministerial hen harrier threat response plan.
The IRSP also said that the ABP was being asked to make a decision on planning permission with “zero consultation” from the statutory nature conservation agency in the NPWS.
Ryan Wilson-Parr, the honorary secretary of the IRSP, said the group was not opposed to wind farms but that this was an inappropriate development. “We are not an organisation that is against renewable energy. Our motivations are based around ensuring the right protections are in place and ensuring that the proper conservation legislation is adhere to,” he said.
Wilson-Parr said the Nagle Mountains were an “important breeding area” for the hen harrier in Ireland, adding that the wind farms were “absolutely” a threat to the existence of the birds. He said the development should have been “scrapped” at the consultation stage.
ABP had “no alternative” than to refuse the permission based on ecological grounds, he added.
Wilson-Parr said there were other wind farms seeking planning permission across the country that would have similar effects on the hen harrier. “It’s crazy,” he said.
The NPWS said it had submitted an observation to ABP on the planning application, but declined to comment further on the development. Coom Green Energy Park did not respond to a request for comment. The case will be decided by June 21.