Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for helping to raise awareness of the issue. I am taking this Topical Issue matter on behalf of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly. The Department has no involvement with this project, nor has the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. I understand from newspaper reports that a company called the Independent Pipeline Company, which is backed by a County Laois-based engineering concern, Fingleton White and Dublin-based fuel transporters Reynolds Logistics, intends to submit planning applications to both Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council in the coming weeks for an aviation fuel pipeline between Dublin Port and Dublin Airport. In effect, the proposal is a private development. As the proposed pipeline would traverse the functional areas of two planning authorities, planning applications are required to be submitted to the two concerned planning authorities.

The role of my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, with regard to the planning system is primarily to provide and update the legislative and policy framework, including the provision of policy guidance to the planning authorities, including An Bord Pleanála, so that they can carry out their prescribed planning functions. This legislative framework comprises the Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2014 and the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 to 2013. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, has issued a large number of policy guidance documents in the form of planning guidelines under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act, to which planning authorities and An Bord Pleanála are obliged to have regard in the exercise of their planning functions.

Therefore, in this particular case, if and when planning applications are lodged in respect of the proposed aviation fuel pipeline, the decision as to whether to grant planning permission, with or without conditions, will be a matter for the relevant planning authorities in the first instance. Given the scale of the proposed project, it will be a requirement that consultation with relevant statutory bodies and with the public is carried out as part of the planning application process. When ultimately making their decisions on the planning applications under section 34 of the Planning and Development Act, the planning authorities concerned will be required to consider the overall proper planning and sustainable development of the area, having regard to among other things, the provisions of the respective local development plans, any submissions or observations received on the planning applications and, where relevant, any relevant policy of the Government.

In addition, the requirements of the environmental impact assessment directive and the habitats directive, which have been transposed in our planning legislation, must also be considered. Accordingly, any environmental impacts of the project will be fully assessed, while also having regard to any inputs in this connection from the consultation process with relevant statutory bodies and the public.

The possibility of lodging an appeal against any decision of a planning authority is, of course, a fundamental feature of the planning system. The applicant or developer, as well as any person who made a submission on the original planning application, may appeal the decision of a planning authority to An Bord Pleanála, the independent statutory appeals board. In such instance, An Bord Pleanála is required to review the entire case and ultimately reaches its own determination on the matter, in line with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.

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