Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Senator raises valid questions. I will make a couple of points. First, planning permission is normally given for a five-year period. There was the Derryadd judgment case recently with An Bord Pleanála. It basically raised the whole issue of the question of flexibility and that is why this regulation is being brought in. We want really to expedite renewable energy. We must remember this is a process with detailed preplanning. An element of ambiguity came with the Derryadd judgment case but it basically said there was not sufficient knowledge or information within the grant to allow that level of flexibility even though it would be implicit normally with planning applications. Any of us dealing with planning over the years know that it comes back to some level of flexibility. What we are putting into the regulation here is that we want to streamline a process whereby if a person goes for preplanning, pays a €2,500 fee, he and she gets an opinion on the basis of that preplanning which will provide the flexibility. When the person comes forward to apply for planning, obviously the fee will be determined by the type of preplanning. If environmental impact assessments, EIAs, are required and so forth, it could be double or treble the standard fee. When the planning application itself is made, the applicant will be required to include in the planning application the opinion that was given to them in preplanning and the level of flexibility they require. Therefore, there is no ambiguity around it. This is instead of a situation where people may not do preplanning, that level of flexibility is not known and suddenly there is a planning application coming in and a degree of ambiguity around it. We all know of cases where an inch here or an inch there was significant. This would provide absolute certainty. However, in the market place, particularly with, say, wind turbines, what they are looking for may not be on the market at the time.

This would provide flexibility during installation, allowing for small changes to provide more efficiency through things that were not on the market when the opinion or planning was applied for.