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

My Department is currently undertaking a focused review of the 2006 wind energy development guidelines, which the Deputy referenced. The review is addressing a number of key aspects, including noise, set-back distance, shadow flicker, community obligation, community dividend and grid connections. I am aware there are a great many applications throughout the country. Guidance on the noise aspect is currently being finalised by my Department in conjunction with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, which has primary responsibility for environmental noise matters. In this connection that Department is due to procure an acoustic expert shortly to inform any amendments to the noise aspect of the guidelines. This is quite a technical piece of work and I appreciate it will take some time. Following this, my Department will be in a better position to provide an update on the expected publication date of the revised guidelines. It should also be noted that the review of the guidelines has been included as a specific action in the recently published Climate Action Plan 2023.

Proposals for wind energy developments are subject to the statutory requirements of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, in the same manner as other forms of proposed development. As such, I have no plans to place a moratorium on planning applications for wind energy developments pending the finalisation of the revised guidelines.

It is also important to state that the existing 2006 guidelines are still in place and are still used for the purposes of consideration of individual planning applications. The planning policy in the legislative framework is already in place. We await and obviously are all eagerly anticipating the revised guidelines coming forward.

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