Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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45. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the obligations on Irish Rail to seek planning permissions for the maintenance, development and improvement of the rail systems. [25026/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Under the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, all development, unless specifically exempted under the Act or associated Regulations, requires planning permission.

Section 4 of the Act and Schedule 2 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001, as amended, set out various exemptions from the requirement to obtain planning permission. Any such exemptions are subject to compliance with any general restrictions on exemptions set out in the Act or the Regulations and to the specific conditions set out in each class of exempted development in Schedule 2 of the Regulations.

In this regard, for example, Class 23 of Part 1 of Schedule 2 of the Regulations, provides that'the carrying out by any railway undertaking of development required in connection with the movement of traffic by rail in, on, over or under the operational land of the undertaking, except—

(a) the construction or erection of any railway station or bridge, or of any residential structure, office or structure to be used for manufacturing or repairing work, which is not situated wholly within the interior of a railway station, or

(b) the reconstruction or alteration of any of the aforementioned structures so as materially to affect the design or external appearance thereof'

shall be exempted from the requirement to obtain planning permission under the Act.

In addition, other enactments may provide for specific exemptions, such as section 38(1) of the Transport (Railway Infrastructure) Act 2001, as amended, which provides that'each of the following shall be exempted development for the purposes of the Act of 2000:

(a) development consisting of the carrying out of railway works, including the use of the railway works or any part thereof for the purposes of the operation of a railway, authorised by the Board and specified in a railway order or of any incidental or temporary works connected with such development;

(b) development consisting of the carrying out of railway works for the maintenance, improvement or repair of a railway that has been built pursuant to a railway order.'

Any question as to whether development is or is not exempt from the requirement to obtain planning permission is a matter for the relevant local authority, or An Bord Pleanála on referral, to determine.