A planning application was submitted by Gen7 to Wexford County Council (WCC) for the solar farm in September of this year and the local authority has requested further information before it decides whether to grant or refuse planning. However, given its track record, the GCAG says it fully expects WCC to approve the application.
“An independent analysis reviewing solar farm applications across all 31 local authorities, found that WCC received 62 such applications since 2015, of which 55 were approved and 7 refused — an 88.3 pc approval rate,” said a spokesperson for the group.
While those in favour of solar farms will argue they are a clean energy source, the GCAG says the farms are being built in the wrong places and are, in effect, decommissioning some of Co Wexford’s most fertile agricultural lands.
“Much of the land now targeted for large-scale solar is productive agricultural land,” the spokesperson continued. “This contradicts the aims of Wexford’s County Development Plan and undermines food security, rural enterprise and landscape character. These developments risk accelerating rural decline by undermining the viability, attractiveness and safety of rural communities.”
Residents from Gusserane protesting against the proposed solar development pictured outside the Wexford County Council on Monday. Pic: Jim Campbell
News in 90 Seconds – 10 December 2025
And although those living within a certain radius of solar farms can avail of specific community benefit schemes, the GCAG says these grants are no substitute for the “long-term impacts on landscape, farming, education, heritage and health”.
“No payment can compensate for the permanent industrialisation of rural life. The cumulative loss of peace, visual amenity, recreation, biodiversity and heritage has not been meaningfully addressed. The Community Benefit Fund is repeatedly presented as mitigation, but in reality it divides communities and offers token short-term gestures while long-term impacts fall entirely on residents.”
The group also cited a number of alleged shortfalls in Gen7’s planning application which it says raises “serious and unresolved public-safety and environmental concerns”.
Residents from Gusserane protesting against the proposed solar development pictured outside the Wexford County Council on Monday. Pic: Jim Campbell
The Gusserane Community Action Group (GCAG) gathered outside Wexford County Hall on Monday afternoon in advance of the monthly council meeting and addressed many councillors making their way into the building. During that council meeting the issue of solar farms, and the proposed development in Cloonagh, was near the top of the agenda.
Councillor Marty Murphy, who farms lands similar to those being acquired by solar farm developers in the county, said his 200 acres directly or indirectly employs 115 people in his local area.
“From Arthurstown to Campile, Gusserane to Cushinstown, and Old Ross to Clonroche, there’s been thousands of acres taken up with solar farms. It’s a national shame that this high production land is being taken out of use,” he began. “I farm some of the best land not just in Wexford but in Ireland, and I’m privileged to do so. The milk I produce is collected by McDonnell Brothers which has seven employees, then into Wexford Creamery which has 60 employees, then into Tirlán in Campile which has another eight employees.
“There’s the hardware store, the agricultural contractors, the company which maintains the milking equipment; I directly employ two people myself and I rent land off two people, there’s approximately 115 people who are employed directly or indirectly through my farm. If you put solar panels on that farm would it be capable of supporting even one job?
“We need to take a serious look at ourselves, we’re taking out some of the most productive land in the country and installing solar farms on it to support ‘green-washing’ for multinationals.”
Cllr Murphy received the unequivocal support of his colleagues with Cllr Michael Sheehan accusing central government of “doing anything to be at the top of the class” for its European counterparts. Meanwhile, Cllr John Fleming said more solar farms would result in the further disintegration of rural communities in Co Wexford.
“The whole area will be turned into a glass house, that’s what the future holds, we can’t let this happen,” he said. “The population in our rural areas is already declining, there was an U14 match held recently and five schools had to come together to field a team.”
Continuing this theme, Cllr Vicky Barron said that land used for solar farms was reclassified as being for “business use” which drove prices up elsewhere and impacted young farmers hoping to purchase land in their areas. She also dismissed the notion that farmers were solely responsible for increases in emissions.
Cllr Lisa McDonald speaking with the residents spokesperson Terry Murphy at Gusserane’s protest against the proposed solar development pictured outside the Wexford County Council on Monday. Pic: Jim Campbell
“In the 1800s there were 60 million cows in the world and there was no issues with climate change, there are still 60 million cows in the world and the agricultural sector is not causing the problem.”
Originally from a farming background himself, Cllr Jim Codd said tillage farmers in Co Wexford had been “crippled” this year due to rising costs and that another solar farm would “make life even more difficult for them”. “If you take huge swathes of agricultural land away you drive the price of the remaining land up further,” he added.
There were also concerns regarding food production and an impending crisis which could have far-reaching effects.
“This land can used for the production of food and, as we know, we’re on the brink of a food crisis, we’re already in a food crisis,” said Cllr Lisa McDonald. “It makes no sense, this development is too big for a community of this size.”
Rather than promote sustainability, another solar farm would result in Irish supermarkets having to import food which could be produced locally argued Cllr John Dwyer.
“Multinationals are coming in and setting up supermarkets, they’re having to import food which could be produced on this land,” he said. “Foulkmills is already destroyed and the profit will come through the exporting of electricity produced here, other countries are not prepared to have their land used for this but are willing to pay a premium price to have Irish land used for it.”
Cllr Pip Breen suggested Co Wexford was a victim of its own reputation and was being targeted due to its favourable geography.
“This is happening because we’re the sunny south east and also because we have good, flat land; why don’t they go to Spain? It’s not producing anything only sunshine.”
While everyone commended the Gusserane community, Cllr Aoife Rose O’Brien said it was “concerning” that the people living in the area hadn’t been fully consulted prior to the planning application being submitted. “The people have invested a lot of time and energy into this and the lack of consultation is really concerning, we’re here to deliver for our communities, that should be our primary goal,” she said.
With the debate going round the houses and little in the way of a solution or a plan being uncovered, Cllr Ger Carthy said there were limited options available to either the GCAG or the elected representatives.
“There’s no impediment to the plan being granted. And there’s very little we can do here bar the advise the community to take the case to An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP), then to a judicial review, and into the courts,” he said. “These solar farms are a blight on society and there should be a material contravention put in the county development plan to prevent them from being approved, we have a responsibility as elected members to put a stop to this nonsense, I have no objection to solar farms being put in appropriate areas but not where the land is being worked.”
As the planning application is currently live, there was only so much the council officials could say without prejudicing the case. But ultimately, any approval would have to be signed off by chief executive Eddie Taaffe.
“That’s my role as chief executive,” he said. “I have a duty of care to the local authority and if I don’t follow the processes correctly it could incur significant legal costs. I have to answer to the taxpayer – if I get it wrong and there’s a €100,000 High Court bill the members will be in here asking me how we’re going to pay for it.”
Residents from Gusserane protesting against the proposed solar development pictured outside the Wexford County Council on Monday. Pic: Jim Campbell
There was one other avenue available to the councillors, though: independent legal advice. Informed that, as cathaoirleach, he can take advice on behalf of the 34 elected councillors, Cllr Joe Sullivan said he would seek legal counsel with regards to the next steps available and return with further information at the next county meeting.
After the meeting, Cllr Bridín Murphy said there remained “very real anger” in Gusserane over the scale of the solar farm proposals.
“A rural community is being expected to shoulder an industrial-level development with little regard for the people who actually live there,” she said. “I support renewable energy, but this is not balance — it’s overreach. You cannot force a project of this size onto a community without genuine engagement or a honest assessment of the impact on homes, farmland and local roads. In my view, this is the wrong development in the wrong place, and the people of Gusserane deserve better.”
Also, after the meeting, the spokesperson for the GCAG, who had been in the gallery while the solar farm was discussed, said it was “encouraging” to receive so much support from the councillors.
“We’re not going to back down on this, it’s too important,” they insisted. “There’s a proliferation of these solar farms in our area, 4.5km down the road from us there’s another application gone in. We’re already on track to meet our renewable targets for 2027 with existing projects and those that are approved so what is the reason for these additional ones?
“Communities are being torn apart over this. One of the proposed access points is 20m from the school entrance, and there’s a convergence of small country roads at that school; you’re talking about hundreds of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) going through roads where two cars can’t even pass one another.”
Even though the development has yet to be approved, the spokesperson said the possibility of another solar farm in the area was dissuading locals from applying for planning permission to build houses.
“People wanting to build in these areas rely on getting a site from a farmer or landowner, that land is being taken away and no-one wants to live beside an energy farm – there are people holding off applying for planning until they see how this goes. I know of young couples living abroad who want to come home but they’re deliberating, there’s nothing here for them. You can have all these community buyback schemes offering a new pitch, even a swimming pool, but if there’s no-one to go into it then it’s not much use.”
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.