Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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279. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the number of submissions received by his Department in respect of the draft wind energy planning guidelines; the way his staff will appraise and evaluate this significant level of communal participation in the planning process, and the preparation and development of the final draft; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10712/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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My Department received submissions on the proposed revisions to the Wind Energy Development Guidelines 2006 from over 7,000 individuals and organisations by the 21 February 2014 deadline. Each of the individual submissions will now be read by my Department and key issues relevant to the focused review of the guidelines will be identified . These key issues will then be considered when preparing the final version of the revised guidelines and making any necessary amendments to the existing guidelines deemed appropriate. I would expect to issue the final revised guidelines by the end of June 2014 under Section 28 of the Planning and Development Act, 2000, which will require both planning authorities and An Bord Pleanála to have regard to them in the assessment of planning applications.