John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this matter. The Minister of State, Deputy Canney, is taking oral parliamentary questions in the Dáil at the same time as this, so it is just one of those scheduling issues, but I will respond on behalf of his Department and relate to him the questions raised.

It is important to note that mineral exploration drilling projects do not ordinarily require planning permission as they are generally non-invasive, low-level activities. The competent authority for mineral exploration drilling consent is the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment. In accordance with the planning Acts, mineral exploration is an exempt activity and, in general, planning permission is currently only required where a screening for environmental impact assessment, EIA, determines that a full environmental impact assessment is required, in which circumstances the exemption from planning falls and the matter is then referred to the relevant local authority.

Until 2018, it had been considered that the environmental impact assessment process, under Directive 2011/92/EU, as amended by Directive 2014/52/EU, did not apply to mineral exploration activities, including mineral exploration drilling. In June of last year, however, the Department received legal advice to the effect that mineral exploration drilling should be considered to fall within the scope of "deep drilling", as referred to in the EIA directive. As a result, the exploration and mining division of the Department prioritised the transposition of the directive to ensure that all mineral exploration "deep" drilling was subject to screening for EIA.

While work on the transposition was under way, a further problem was identified arising out of SI 543 of 2014. This statutory instrument provides that all "deep" drilling would require mandatory EIA, save in circumstances where the relevant local authority or An Bord Pleanála or the appropriate Minister within the meaning of the Foreshore Acts determined that the "deep" drilling concerned would not have a significant effect on the environment. This was enacted before the Department received the legal advice to the effect that mineral exploration drilling was covered by the concept of deep drilling in the EIA directive.

The result was that there was an unintended lacuna in the legislative framework in respect of the powers of the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment and, for a time, a situation arose whereby the Minister, as competent authority, was unable to carry out his function in this area. This also meant that for a period mineral exploration drilling proposals could only be screened for EIA by the relevant planning authority or, in the case of the foreshore area, by the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, even though mineral exploration drilling is generally not subject to planning permission. An immediate stay had to be put on the granting of consents by the Minister for all mineral exploration drilling in the country until such time as the legislative anomaly could be rectified. This took a number of months to resolve because of the legal complexity and, regrettably, a number of jobs were lost in the industry during that time.

The necessary amending legislation, SI 384 of 2018, which provided the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment with the legal basis for undertaking EIA screening, was eventually enacted on 2 October. It should be reiterated that this statutory instrument does not have effect for planning purposes as mineral exploration drilling is in general not subject to planning permission unless it is determined that a full EIA is required. I should also like to make clear that the signing of the statutory instrument did not take any authority from local authorities and that section 5 of the planning Acts remains in place, as was previously the case.