Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I have questions on two matters on today's Order of Business. The first, No. 13, is a proposal by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to provide exemptions from planning regulations for significant extensions to schools and in the case of, for example, wind turbines of 8 m in width and 20 m in height. These are not small turbines in people's back gardens but large turbines of some 60 ft. in height. The proposals also encompass combined heat and power systems, 300 sq. m in size and 8 m in height, and with flues of 20 m in height. Under this proposal, therefore, biomass, heat recovery or composting developments of some 1,000 sq. m, which is the size of a small housing estate, will be entirely exempt from planning regulations

This proposal has serious implications for local residents. Wind energy and biomass developments half of the size or even the same size as an adjacent housing estate will be totally exempt from the planning process and there will be no requirement to provide an environmental impact statement. This is not the way to provide transparency in planning matters, which I understood was a hallmark of the Green Party. We are opposed to this provision.

The second item I wish to raise is No. b11, a proposal by the Minister, Deputy Gormley, for a referral to the Joint Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government of further exemptions from planning regulations. The Labour Party spokesman on the environment, Deputy Ciarán Lynch, has spent the past several days trying to find out what is encompassed in these additional exemptions, but nobody can tell him. We will not accept this proposal.

Will the Tánaiste ask the Minister to come to the House for a debate on provisions that will affect the residents of every housing estate in the State? Anybody could wake up in the morning to discover a biomass development the same size as their housing estate right alongside it. These developments will be governed by the same planning regulations as pertain to kitchen extensions, conservatories or porches. We all welcome the exemptions that exist in those cases but we do not welcome this proposal. Nor will the constituents of Members on the Government benches when they find such developments taking place beside their own housing estates.

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