Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Question 409: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, further to Parliamentary Question No. 879 of 17 June 2008, the reason his Department collects information on prosecutions under section 154(8) but not section 154(9) of the Planning and Development Act 2000; if any other Department or body collects such information; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24664/08]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Section 154(3)(a) of the Planning and Development Act 2000 confers a general power on planning authorities to serve an enforcement notice not only on the person carrying out the relevant development but, where the authority considers it necessary, on the owner or occupier of the land concerned or any other person who in the opinion of the authority may be concerned with the matters to which the notice relates. In 2006, the most recent year for which completed statistics are available, there were 596 prosecutions following failure to comply with enforcement notices.

Information available to my Department suggests that the general provisions of section 154(3)(a), rather than the specific provisions of section 154(9), are used by planning authorities to prosecute those facilitating non-compliance with enforcement notices. Notwithstanding this my Department will examine the usefulness of collecting data in relation to section 154(9) for the 2008 Annual Planning Statistics. I am not aware that any other Department or body collects statistical information regarding prosecutions under section 154(9) of the 2000 Act.

Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 410: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the position in relation to a matter (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24690/08]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Planning authorities may, when granting planning permission for quarries, attach appropriate conditions to such permissions. My Department's Guidelines to Planning Authorities on Quarrying and Ancillary Activities, issued in April 2004, offer guidance to planning authorities on planning for the quarrying industry, both in their development plans and in determining individual applications for planning permission. The Guidelines recommend suitable planning conditions for mitigating the environmental impacts of quarries and, in relation to the control of dust, specifically refer to wheel washing of vehicles leaving a site and covering of fine dry loads or spraying of loads prior to exiting a site as possible mitigation measures.

The once-off registration of quarries introduced by Section 261 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, commenced in April 2004, gave a further opportunity to planning authorities to impose controls on certain quarries. Following registration, a planning authority could impose conditions on the operation of a pre-October 1964 quarry or could require such a quarry to apply for planning permission and submit an Environmental Impact Statement where certain thresholds were exceeded. Authorities were also able to restate, modify or add to conditions on the operation of a quarry that received planning permission more than 5 years before the commencement of Section 261.