Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 3 October 2019

Public Accounts Committee

2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála

9:00 am

Photo of Peter BurkePeter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was very understanding of the statement that it was not possible to be specific about planning applications. One area of interest is the operation of the strategic infrastructure provision. Perhaps Mr. Sheridan might like to comment on this. It concerns the determination the board must make further to county development plans. I am thinking of areas like the development of the renewables sector and wind farms. I note that An Bord Pleanála's annual report is very clear about the determinations it has made in respect of those. The Department embarked on a trajectory a number of years ago. Councillors were setting out provisions in their county development plans that would aid the development of renewables like wind farms in particular areas like boglands. They were making it very clear in the development plan that the Minister was issuing directions to overturn those proposals. Subsequently, it stopped doing that. Recent county development plans contain variations that were put forward by the local authorities. They were left in place when concerns may have been raised. In other words, they agreed with the decisions of the democratically-elected local authorities. An example could be if a local authority makes a determination through the democratically-elected councillors to designate an area in its county development plan that might be suitable for the development of a wind farm. This is a global picture to help my understanding of the process. Were the local authority to designate an area, for example, a bog, based on its assessment, the testing of wind speeds, the habitat and all the different matrices it uses, how much note of that would be taken by An Bord Pleanála? Is it a definite "No" that it would override decisions like that in the county development plan or is it something of which it would take substantial account? How does that process work? It has always interested me.

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