Tokenistic consultation is not enough says Junior Minister and Carlow Kilkenny Green TD

Carlow and Kilkenny’s local Minister says tokenistic consultation is not good enough.

There’s been complaints from listeners over the level of consultation with the local communities for two proposed windfarms on Coilte land at Mount Leinster and in South Kilkenny.

Malcolm Noonan is a Junior Minister at the Department of Housing, which has the responsibility for planning.

He says he’s not legally allowed to comment on specific planning applications but he’s told KCLR that that proper meaningful consultation with locals is a crucial part of the process.

His comments came during an interview with our Sue Nunn on last evening’s The Way It Is – listen back to that conversation in full here: