James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising the important issue of the current status of the draft regulations and planning exemptions for solar panels on farm buildings and other structures, including timelines.

To provide some background on the issue, under the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, all development, unless specifically exempted under the Act or associated regulations, requires planning permission. Various exemptions from the requirement to obtain planning permission are set out in the Act and regulations, and these exemptions are subject to compliance with general restrictions on exemptions set out in the Act and regulations. Included in the planning exemptions are those applying to the installation of solar infrastructure on a variety of building types, including houses, businesses and industrial and agricultural structures to which specific conditions are attached.

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, in the context of the climate action plan and in consultation with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, has completed a review of the existing solar panel planning exemptions set out in the regulations, with a particular focus on facilitating increased self-generation of electricity and in recognition of the limitations of the current exemptions.

Further to this work, substantial changes to the current planning exemption thresholds for solar panels are proposed, as well as the introduction of new classes of solar panel planning exemptions for apartments and educational, community and religious buildings. Draft regulations have been prepared by the Department which have been screened for appropriate assessment, AA, under the requirements of the habitats directive and strategic environmental assessment, SEA, under the requirements of the SEA directive. While the need for AA was screened out by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage's ecological assessment unit in April, it has been determined that a full SEA on the draft proposals, which will include public consultation as part of the process, is required.

A four-week statutory consultation with the environmental authorities on the scope of the draft SEA environmental report commenced on 28 April 2022 and will run until 27 May 2022. Following this consultation process, the draft environmental report will be updated to take account of submissions received from the environmental authorities, and a four-week public consultation on the draft environmental report will subsequently be launched. This public consultation is expected to commence in the coming weeks.

As required under planning legislation, the proposed exempted development regulations must be laid in draft form before the Houses of the Oireachtas and receive a positive resolution from both Houses before they can be made and the SEA process concluded.Therefore, it is envisaged that the process for finalising the solar panel planning exemptions will be completed in the coming months, following the conclusion of the public consultation process and the finalisation of the strategic environmental assessment report. The regulations will also be subject to Oireachtas approval.