SF – Cllr G. Doherty, P. Doherty TD, MacLochlain TD

Pic by @britpix

Responses to specific questions raised:

No.	Question	G. Doherty	P. Doherty	MacLochlain
1	Do you, or your family members, own/direct or otherwise have a pecuniary interest in a wind farm or related company?	NO	No Reply	No Reply
2	Have you ever attended a pre-planning meeting between a local authority and wind farm promoter?	NO	No Reply	No Reply
3	How close to a wind farm would you live? For this question assume a wind farm of 5 turbines each 125m height and select from the options (i) doesn’t matter next door is fine; (ii) must be at least 500m away; (iii) must be at least 750m away; (iv) must be at least 1km away; (v) must be at least 1.25km away; or (vi) must be at least 2km away.	(v) 1.25km away, as per Variation to County Development Plan and ten times tip height recommendation.
4	The Sinn Féin position on wind farms seems to be contradictory where on the one hand the party supports wind energy the myth of community gain in reports, at successive ardfheiseanna yet the party introduced the Wind Turbine Regulation Bill seeking in part to regulate the industry.  Can you advise how this obvious dissonance would be resolved if Sinn Féin were in power?	The Sinn Fèin Wind Turbine Bill is clear and unambiguous in its proposals to safeguard communities against the detrimental effects of wind turbines and wind farms.  Under the Bill, Strategic Infrastructural Developments would no longer go to an Bord Pleanala and the judgement would remain with the local planning authorities. Ten times tip height would be legislated for, it includes a stipulation that all energy produced must remain in Ireland and a limitation on industrial scale wind farms, under which developments such as Carrickaduff would be on contradiction of and therefore not be permitted. The party, locally and nationally, also supports a moratorium on any future granting of planning permissions until the guidelines from 2006 are updated. We do not however support a blanket ban on wind turbines and where there is community support and no threat to health then Sinn Fèin will not oppose them.
5	If elected will you support Donegal County Councillors variation no.2 on wind farm planning and make your support of or participation in a government conditional on the Minister for Environment dropping his opposition to variation no.2 and withdrawing his section 31 direction?  This can be achieved if the Minister withdraws opposition to the high court case: Campbell -v- Minister for the Environment 2014/712 JR which is set for hearing in June 2016.  If not, why not?	Yes

Note: Gary Doherty responded to our questions and he copied his responses to both Pearse Doherty and Padraig MacLochlainn. We acknowledged Gary (copying in both Pearse and Padraig) and advised unless otherwise notified we “shall take answers to 3/4/5 as being SF position/responses – if this not correct let us know”, we also advised that Q1 and Q2 were personal questions and if “Padraig and Pearse wish to add anything let us know”. We have received no further update.

As with the other candidates/parties Sinn Féin were offered 750 word blog post but they did not take up this offer.