Seanad debates

Tuesday, 8 July 2014

Adjournment Matters

Wind Energy Guidelines

6:20 pm

Photo of Thomas ByrneThomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)
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The Minister of State has been tipped to be the next Minister for Education and Skills. She would do a very good job. I wish her the best of luck. I saw it in some of the newspapers over the weekend. Senator Cáit Keane will have a head start on her matter if the rumour turns out to be true.

I wish to raise a very serious issue and I am glad the Minister of State is here because responsibility for its lies within the Department. Often the relevant Minister is not available to deal with an Adjournment matter. I am sure the Minister of State is aware of the issue of wind turbine development because I am sure it takes up much of her time. The Minister rightly announced a review of the guidelines last year and draft planning guidelines and regulations for wind turbines were published. It is fair to say the existing guidelines were completely outdated.

The review in the Department is ongoing and there has been public consultation to which my party and many others contributed. Meanwhile, quite a number of planning applications have been decided by An Bord Pleanála or have been submitted to it. There is much confusion as to whether the old guidelines apply. They might be considered more liberal than what is required for a modern day wind farm development. If applications are pending with An Bord Pleanála, will revised guidelines, which hopefully will come into operation and be acceptable to the public, apply to planning decisions?

The issue has become particularly acute in County Meath where Element Power developed a major wind farm for export but the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, announced before the local elections that the plan had collapsed. A week after the local elections the company applied for planning permission for a project for domestic electricity supply, which had very similar infrastructure to the original proposal for export. It has begun the preplanning consultation process under the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act for 50 major wind turbines in County Meath. Public consultation has already taken place but it is completely unclear as to what guidelines or rules the company must comply with in the planning application. I am not asking the Minister of State to determine a particular planning application, but she and the Government set the guidelines and rules and the public wants to know what are the rules. Another consultation process is taking place with the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources on the export of wind, which will also have an impact on the development of these farms. In County Meath, we were told a project for export collapsed, but an identical project is now being planned for the domestic market. All of the guidelines are extremely relevant. The Minister of State knows the question I am asking and I look forward to hearing her response.

Photo of Jan O'SullivanJan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I thank Senator Byrne for raising this issue. 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 proposed developments. Planning applications are generally made to the relevant local planning authority with a right of appeal to An Bord Pleanála. In the case of proposals which meet the statutory threshold criteria for classification as strategic infrastructure developments, such applications are made directly to An Bord Pleanála.

In addition to considering the proper planning and sustainable development of the area and the provisions of the local development plan, planning authorities, including An Bord Pleanála, must also have regard to the Department's wind energy development guidelines, which were published in June 2006, when determining planning applications for wind energy developments. These guidelines provide advice to planning authorities on catering for wind energy through the development plan and development management processes. The guidelines are also intended to ensure a consistency of approach throughout the country in the identification of suitable locations for wind energy development and the treatment of planning applications for such developments.

I commenced a public consultation in December of last year on proposed draft revisions to the existing 2006 wind energy development guidelines, focussing specifically on the issues of noise, setbacks and shadow flicker. These draft revisions propose the setting of a more stringent day and night noise limit of 40 decibels for future wind energy developments; a mandatory minimum setback distance of 500 m between a wind turbine and the nearest dwelling for amenity considerations; and the complete elimination of shadow flicker between wind turbines and neighbouring dwellings.

The Department received submissions from 7,500 organisations and members of the public during the public consultation period and the submissions, which are being considered, will be an important input into the final version of the guidelines, which will be issued to planning authorities. Further work is advancing to develop technical appendices to assist planning authorities with the practical application of the noise measurement aspects of the wind guidelines.

It is intended to finalise the revised wind energy development guidelines later this year and they will then be issued to planning authorities by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended. Planning authorities, and, where applicable, An Bord Pleanála must have regard to guidelines issued by the Minister in the performance of their functions under the planning Acts. In this regard, planning authorities will be obliged to have regard to the revised guidelines with effect from their date of issue in subsequent decisions made by them on proposed wind energy developments. The latter part of the reply addresses the issue raised by the Senator.

Photo of Thomas ByrneThomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)
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The reply raises a number of other questions. When will the guidelines actually be published? There were rumours they would be published this week. The problem is that an application for planning permission under the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act may not take very long. Preplanning consultation is taking place in this case. We are told a formal application for planning will be submitted in the coming weeks. Will the guidelines be published before the application is decided by An Bord Pleanála? Will the Minister of State make clear that these guidelines have effect on every application from the date of their publication? If an application is submitted before they are published, will the guidelines still apply if they are published during the planning process?

I want to make clear we do not think the guidelines go far enough. I do not agree with the draft guidelines and we submitted our own proposals. This issue is crucial. Theoretically, a planning application could be decided over the summer before the guidelines are published. This would be retrograde and unfair. It would give people an unfair advantage. Many applications are pending with An Bord Pleanála. I counted 15 which are either pending or were decided in recent weeks. Last week, an application was granted in south County Meath and I understand from Senator Whelan that another application was granted in County Laois in recent weeks. We also have this application in train in County Meath. We want certainty and it is becoming very urgent.

Photo of Jan O'SullivanJan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I understand that people on all sides of the political divide want certainty on this, which is why we are working as fast as we can on the guidelines. We received a huge number of submissions and we must give them due consideration. The guidelines will be issued as soon as possible. I cannot give the Senator an actual date.

6:30 pm

Photo of Thomas ByrneThomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)
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Will they apply to a planning application that is already started?

Photo of Jan O'SullivanJan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I will repeat what I have said. It is "with effect from their date of issue in relation to subsequent decisions made by them on proposed wind energy developments".