€31.5m wind farm gets the green light
Leavers ‘annoyed’ irish won’t be cowed
Wind farm WORK on a €31.5million wind farm is set to start.
European renewable energy firm Statkraft said the facility between Limerick and Kerry is scheduled to be fully commissioned next year.
The move comes following Statkraft’s acquisition of Element Power Ireland, which has a portfolio of 1,300 megawatts in Ireland.
Spokesman Kevin O’donovan said: “We are Europe’s largest producer of renewable energy and see Ireland as a key market given its significant renewable energy resources.
“We play a leading role in the transition to a low carbon future and our experience and capabilities will be of service to Ireland in this regard.” It’s Tippi in The Birds ACTRESS Dakota Johnson may tower over her grandma, but Tippi Hedren is still a Hollywood giant.
Dakota, 29, whose mother is 88-year-old Tippi’s actress daughter Melanie Griffith, 61, took her gran to the premiere of her new film, Suspiria.
It’s a horror about a dance company run by witches, but is it as scary as her gran’s biggest hit, The Birds? Doubt it.
Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney yesterday LEO Varadkar has claimed parts of the British Establishment expected Ireland to “fall into line” after the Brexit referendum.
The Taoiseach said some people in Britain failed to consider the full impact of its withdrawal from the EU.
Speaking at the Getting Ireland Brexit Ready workshop at the Convention Centre in Dublin, Mr Varadkar admitted relations between Ireland and the United Kingdom were strained because of Brexit.
Sharing a stage with Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, he spoke of the struggle to secure a breakthrough in negotiations.
Mr Varadkar said: “A lot of people in Britain have great affection for Ireland and they understand our concerns and they did think of the impact in Ireland before the referendum.
“But quite frankly there are others who didn’t and you do come across people in the British Establishment who can’t believe we won’t fall into line.
“They thought, ‘Sure you’ll be leaving too, won’t you’. The fact we stood up for ourselves has made some of them quite annoyed, but so be it.
“That’s elements of the Establishment. You’d swear we created the problem.” He said that while his personal relationship with Prime Minister Theresa May was “very good”, relations in the wider sense were strained.
The Taoiseach rejected suggestions from some that the Government was using the peace process to force through a Brexit deal, saying it was “not part of any wider agenda”.
He said: “The rules we have had up until now worked reasonably well and we are trying to protect the gains of the peace process and the relative prosperity we have enjoyed in the last decades.”
Mr Coveney said he believed a Brexit deal was still “a very likely outcome” even in the face of growing pessimism.
He added: “The truth is the withdrawal agreement is the only agreement that’s needed before they leave.
“We are not talking about a detailed future relationship agreement for at least another two years.
“That withdrawal agreement is 95% agreed and written, so it’s the detail work around how we protect Ireland, the island of Ireland as a whole and the border issue and I believe there is a landing zone we can work towards that Britain can live with and we can accept.”