Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 291:

In page 181, after line 29 to insert the following:

“CHAPTER 3

Amendment of Planning and Development Act 2000

Amendment of section 182A of Act of 2000

241. Section 182A of the Act of 2000 is amended— (a) in subsection (1), by the substitution of “Subject to subsection (1B) and section 182AA, where” for “Where”,

(b) in subsection (1A)(b) and (c), by the insertion of “in the maritime area” after “owner of the land”, and

(c) by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (1A):

“(1B) (a) Subject to paragraph (b), the proposed development shall not include any development (which may be all or part of such proposed development and which is referred to in this subsection as the ‘development concerned’) in the maritime area where a licence (referred to in this subsection as the ‘licence concerned’) under section 3 of the Act of 1933 has been granted, on or before the commencement of section 241 of the Historic and Archaeological Heritage Act 2023, in respect of the development concerned.

(b) Where the proposed development required, as appropriate—

(i) an environmental impact assessment,

(ii) an appropriate assessment, or

(iii) both an environmental impact assessment and an appropriate assessment,to be carried out, paragraph (a) shall not apply to the development concerned unless that assessment was, or those assessments were, as the case may be, carried out before the grant of the licence concerned.

(c) Where paragraph (a) applies to the development concerned, the provisions of section 3 of the Act of 1933 relevant to the licence concerned shall be deemed to apply to the carrying out of the proposed development.”.

These are amendments to the Planning and Development Act 2000. On amendments Nos. 291 and 292, following commencement of Part 8 and Schedule 12 of the Maritime Area Planning, MAP, Act 2021, on 1 October 2022, a potential technical requirement has arisen for additional planning permission for projects in the maritime area that already have previously required consents in place, both in Ireland and in other jurisdictions, in the case of certain cables. These amendments address this issue. In brief, Part 11 of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act, 2021 sets out that certain types of development in the maritime area require planning permission and it does not contain any specific exemptions that may already have other consents, particularly in the outer maritime area beyond the foreshore. Consequently, notwithstanding the foreshore consents that have already been obtained in addition to an overarching project of common interest approval, an additional planning permission requirement emerges for certain types of projects, most notably cables, including interconnection ones.

Amendments Nos. 291 and 292 address these potential additional consent requirements. They are limited in their application to those developments that: (a) already have foreshore consents in place; and (b) in the case of larger-scale developments in the maritime have has an environmental impact assessment or appropriate assessment, or both, carried out for the entire project. This will ensure the State remains in compliance with EU environmental law and that the amendments cannot be used to circumvent such obligations where they arise. Section 182A of the Planning and Development Act 2000 deals specifically with electricity transmission developments being carried out by statutory undertakers, transmission being high-voltage cables.

Amendment No. 291 inserts a new section, section 241, which amends section 182A of the Planning and Development Act 2000, providing that where proposed development for electricity transmission infrastructure is licenced under the Foreshore Act 1933, before the commencement of this section, it does not require an additional consent under Section 182A.The section further provides that an environmental impact assessment, and-or an appropriate assessment, must have been carried out before the issue of the licence and where provisions of the licence shall be deemed to apply to the development as a whole.

The section also makes a technical amendment to section 182A, to clarify that the requirement for landowner consent prior to the application under section 182A for the development in the maritime area refers to land in the maritime area. This is in order to avoid any conflict with provisions dealing with land in the area of terrestrial planning.

Amendment No. 292 is a linked amendment that will insert a new section 182AA in the Planning and Development Act 2000. Section 182AA will provide that an application under section 182A of the Planning and Development Act 2000 will not be necessary where an application has been made to An Bord Pleanála under section 291 of that Act in respect of a development in the maritime area for the purposes of electricity transmission. This is a clarifying amendment that will remove the anomaly where consent may be required under both section 291 and section 182A.

Amendment No. 293 deals with a transitional matter and will provide a new section 243, which inserts a new section 278A into the Planning and Development Act 2000. Section 278A will disapply the requirement for a maritime area consent, MAC, for strategic infrastructure development where the prospective applicant entered into pre-application consultations with An Bord Pleanála before 1 October 2022. This is to ensure projects that entered the planning system under section 37B of the Act prior to the commencement of Part XXI of the Planning and Development Act 2000, which introduced the requirement for a MAC, can continue in that consent process notwithstanding the introduction of a new marine planning regime. This exemption is applicable only to strategic infrastructure development where the subsequent application for development consent has been made before 1 October 2024. This will ensure that where the development has not been completed within the required timeframes, the obligations under the new maritime planning regime will apply.

Amendment No. 294 will insert a new section 244, which amends section 280 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. The amendment is intended to further address transition issues in the move from the system operating under the Foreshore Act 1933 to the new marine planning system provided for in the Maritime Area Planning Act 2021. These provisions deal with the situation of projects under way at the time of the commencement of Part 8 of the Maritime Area Planning Act on 1 October 2022. Part 8 inserted Part XXI in the Planning and Development Act 2000, bringing the new maritime planning regime into operation. This amendment will clarify that the new provisions in Part XXI applying to development in the nearshore area will not apply to projects that have been fully consented but have not yet commenced construction, projects that are under construction but have not been completed, and projects that have been completed, as long as the development in question is the subject of either a lease or a licence made or granted before 1 October 2017. This will ensure such projects are not subject to the revised legislative requirements introduced after they had completed the consenting process in place at that time. However, this disapplication will apply only where the development in question has been completed within five years of the commencement of the section. Outside of that, the process will need to be restarted as a new application and an application for a MAC will need to be made.

Amendment No. 296 will insert a new section 246 amending section 285 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. This is a mirror provision to that in section 244. It addresses the same transition issues arising in respect of the move from the existing regime operating under the Foreshore Act 1933 to the new marine planning system provided in the Maritime Area Planning Act 2021, but deals with development in the maritime area other than the nearshore. Similar to section 244, this amendment will clarify that the new provisions in Part XXI applying to development in the maritime area will not apply to projects that have been fully consented but have not yet commenced construction, projects that are under construction but have not been completed, and projects that have been completed, as long as the development in question is the subject of either a lease or a licence made or granted before 1 October 2017. This will ensure such projects are not subject to the revised legislative requirements introduced after they had completed the consenting process in place at that time. The disapplication will apply only where the development in question has been completed within five years of the commencement of the section. Outside of that, the process will need to be restarted as a new application and an application for a MAC will need to be made.

This provision differs from section 244 in that it goes on to specify that any provisions of the lease or licence in place shall be deemed to apply to the development as a whole. This is included as a result of the fact that from 1 October 2022, the maritime area in which authorisation is required has been extended to encompass the entire exclusive economic zone. Accordingly, any provisions attached to a lease or licence made or granted under the Foreshore Act 1933 are now to be considered as extending to the development generally. This is principally relevant to development such as cabling or pipelines.

Amendments Nos. 295 and 297 will insert sections 245 and 247, which amend section 281(2) and section 286 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. They provide technical amendments required as a result of the amendment of section 287 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 and, as in section 242, to ensure that "land” in sections 281(2)(b) and (d) and section 286 will be clarified as meaning “land in the maritime area”. This is to avoid any conflict with provisions dealing with land in the area of terrestrial planning.

Amendment No. 298 will insert a new subsection in section 287 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 to provide that applications for offshore renewable energy-related port infrastructure can enter pre-application consultations with An Bord Pleanála in the absence of a maritime area consent. Applicants for any such development will, however, be required to have a MAC to proceed with submitting a full planning application in accordance with section 291. This provision will shorten the overall consenting timelines for ports by enabling the MAC process and the pre-planning process to run concurrently. It will ensure that, from a consenting perspective, the port infrastructure necessary for offshore energy development can be in place in time to meet the State’s 2030 target.