Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)

It is really refreshing and encouraging to hear the agreement that we need to push for clean, renewable energy. I totally take the Senator's point on the need for guidelines to be brought forward as quickly as possible.

The Programme for Government 2025 - Securing Ireland’s Future reaffirms Ireland’s ambitious targets of 8 GW of solar capacity connected to the grid by 2030 to assist with meeting the requirement of 80% of electricity demand supplied by renewables. Solar energy is a growing source of electricity, with approximately 1.76 GW of solar photovoltaic, PV, capacity currently installed. However, further solar capacity is required.

The programme for Government also contains a commitment to a land use review to ensure that optimal land-use options inform all relevant Government decisions. The second phase of the review, which is currently under way, will seek to identify the key demands on land to inform policies for land use across key Government objectives, improving socioeconomic, climate, biodiversity, water and air quality outcomes.

From a planning perspective, the programme for Government contains a commitment to introduce planning guidelines in respect of solar energy developments. In light of this commitment, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has begun an initial scoping process to identify the component factors relevant to the preparation of these guidelines, including the possible timeframe for publication.

Until the planning guidelines for solar energy developments are finalised, it remains the case that there are no specific planning guidelines in place that deal with solar energy development, as is the case for most types of development. In making a decision on a planning application for a solar energy development, a planning authority must consider the specific merits or otherwise of the application, in line with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.

With respect to the regulation of solar energy developments more generally, planning plays an important role in this regard from both a policy and legislative perspective. From a policy perspective, the national planning framework, NPF, which was revised by my Department this year, sets the long-term strategy for the spatial development of Ireland to 2040 and informs a spatial hierarchy of plans that cascade to regional and local levels. The revised NPF enhances policy support for renewable energy development, including, in particular, the introduction of regional renewable electricity capacity allocations for solar generation development to achieve the national targets set out in the climate action plan. These allocations will be integrated into regional spatial and economic strategies, which will in turn inform city and county development plans and will lead to the identification of areas towards which large-scale solar energy development will be directed, and areas which may not be appropriate for such development.

From a planning legislation perspective, the Planning and Development Act 2024 delivers a range of measures to enhance the existing legislative framework. The Act provides for the alignment of the plan-making hierarchy to ensure greater consistency between national policy and local implementation, as well as providing greater certainty for stakeholders at all stages of the planning process.

The Senator may have picked up from the response that at the moment the areas that those responsible are scoping out the relevant areas in terms of the guidelines. I dislike the word "scoping" when I see it in an answer because it is almost like it is kicking the can down the road a bit. Within my Department, I will certainly stress the urgency, working with the Minister of State with responsibility for planning, Deputy John Cummins, to ensure that these guidelines are expedited. There is no timeline at the moment. That is not good enough. We need to get timelines in place in order that communities will know what they are dealing with. We need more renewable energy online. I often hear in communities that rural Ireland has already done enough. I am not sure that is the case. There is scope for more onshore wind and solar energy. We are only just realising the potential in that regard. We need to get to 80% renewables by 2030. That is a big ask. We are going to have to develop more renewable sources in all parts of Ireland.