Our Community
Engagement approach
At FuturEnergy Ireland, we believe in speaking to the local community right from the start and continuing this engagement throughout the entire lifetime of the wind farm.
On the ground, we have two dedicated project Community Liaison Officers, Eamonn Keavney and Tom Costello. Their job is to provide information and answer your queries.
Tom and Eamonn will be calling to houses in the local area throughout the project, distributing newsletters and making sure you get the information that you need.
Our commitment to you
- Dedicated project Community Liaison Officers who you can contact directly via email or telephone. We welcome your feedback and comments
- Regular newsletter updates
- All updates added to this website
- The opportunity to meet a team specialist or consultant relevant to your query
- A full project brochure
- A Virtual Exhibition linked to this website
- A Community Engagement Clinic
Supporting a local renewable energy project comes with many benefits for the community
Community Benefit Fund
Lissinagroagh Wind Farm has the potential to bring significant positive benefits to local communities. The project will support local employment, it will contribute annual rates to the local authority and it will provide a Community Benefit Fund in line with the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS).
RESS is a policy initiative to deliver on the Government’s Climate Action Plan. An important feature of RESS is that all projects must establish a Community Benefit Fund to be used for the wider environmental, social and economic wellbeing of the local community.
Those living in closest proximity to the project should be priority beneficiaries and that is why some of the fund is designated for Near Neighbour payments. However, it is important that broader community benefits apply as well.
Community Benefit Fund
The scheme mandates all RESS projects to establish a Community Benefit Fund worth €2 per MWh (megawatt hour) of generated electricity for any future wind farm.
Therefore, the project owners are required to contribute €2 per MWh annually into a community fund for the RESS contract period i.e. the first 15 years of operation. The total fund per annum will depend on the final power output of a successful project.
FuturEnergy Ireland also offers a further €1 per MWh contribution for the remaining lifetime of the proposed Lissinagroagh development. If the project does not qualify for RESS, FuturEnergy Ireland pledges to match these contributions.
The scheme mandates all RESS projects to establish a Community Benefit Fund worth €2 per MWh (megawatt hour) of generated electricity for any future wind farm.
Therefore, the project owners are required to contribute €2 per MWh annually into a community fund for the RESS contract period i.e. the first 15 years of operation. The total fund per annum will depend on the final power output of a successful project.
FuturEnergy Ireland also offers a further €1 per MWh contribution for the remaining lifetime of the proposed Croagh development. If the project does not qualify for RESS, FuturEnergy Ireland pledges to match these contributions.
The new Rulebook for Community Benefit Funds under RESS, published in May 2025 by the Department of the Environment, Climate & Communications, sets out how the funds should be used and managed.
What does your community need?
When it comes to the Community Benefit Fund, communities will be at the centre of the decision-making process, which gives them the opportunity to develop a strategy to maximise the benefits.
One particular focus of the fund is to support local initiatives that align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals such as home and community hall retrofits, pollinator farms, cycling paths, educational material and scholarships, and sports club activities.
If you have suggestions or ideas about local projects that could be funded, please get in touch with CLOs Eamonn or Tom.
Local rates contributions
Lissinagroagh Wind Farm has the potential to make a substantial contribution in annual rates payments to Letrim County Council, an important contributor in exchequer funding.
This would have a positive impact on the development of local infrastructure such as roads, public transport, lighting, street cleaning, libraries, fire services, public amenities and employment.
Education
We have embedded a holistic approach to education across all of our community engagement programmes to encourage people to learn more about climate change, the environment and the renewable energy transition. Schools near the Lissinagroagh project area can avail of the following:
- Bosca Dúlra provided by Biodiversity in Schools. Each Bosca Dúlra, or Nature Box, is an innovative and fun nature toolkit that helps national school children explore biodiversity.
- 'Renewable Energy & Your Future' workshops in secondary schools, run by our CLOs, with an emphasis on the ‘climate jobs’ market. This may also be accompanied by a trip to a wind farm.
- Youth advocacy programme Generation Change, which is designed to help young people learn more about renewable energy in a non-formal education setting.
- A renewable energy workshop tailored to your community group.
“Thanks again for a lovely STEAM Education resource. I found the content and layout excellent so well done to all involved in the planning and development of these wonderful sessions."
"Our school was thrilled to be involved in this initiative and would recommend it to other schools as a way of teaching an important topic in a highly engaging way."
"This is an excellent programme for both children and teachers. It is very user-friendly with well-developed resources and a wide range of activities for the children to engage with."
"Many thanks for delivering an excellent presentation to the girls and for organising our visit to the wind farm. The girls truly loved it."
"The children loved the hands-on nature of the tasks and found the lessons both engaging and fascinating."
Have your say
It’s important for us to be good neighbours and we take this responsibility very seriously. We welcome feedback from the community throughout the lifetime of this project.
There are a number of ways you can do this:
- Speak to a Community Liaison Officer, either in person, by phone or via email
- Visit the Virtual Exhibition
- Attend the in-person Community Engagement Clinic
