Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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615. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the situations in which an environmental assessment must be conducted as part of a planning permission to operate a quarry and or landfill site; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30887/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Projects requiring an environmental impact assessment (EIA) by a planning authority or An Bord Pleanála (the Board), as appropriate, in respect of an application for planning consent are listed in Schedule 5 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 (the Regulations).

Part 1 of Schedule 5 of the Regulations includes projects such as waste disposal installations including landfills for hazardous waste (para 9) and quarries where the surface area exceeds 25 hectares (para 19).  Part 2 includes such projects involving the extraction of stone, gravel, sand or clay where the extraction area exceeds 5 hectares (para 2(b)) and installations for disposal of waste with an annual in take greater than 25,000 tonnes (para 11(b)).

These thresholds also apply in the case of applications for a change or extension of such projects or where a change or extension would result in an increase in size greater than 25 per cent of the appropriate threshold.  EIA is also required in the consideration of planning applications, other than in the circumstances referred to above, where a development project is likely to have significant effects on the environment, having regard to the criteria set out in Schedule 7 of the Regulations.

With specific reference to quarries, in response to the Judgment of the European Court of Justice in case C-215/06, section 261A was inserted into the Planning and Development Act 2000 (the Act) in 2010. Under this provision, each planning authority was required to examine all existing quarries in its functional area to determine whether EIA, a screening for EIA or an appropriate assessment (AA) should have been, but was not, carried out. Where a planning authority determined that a quarry came within this category, the authority was required to make a further decision in relation to the planning status of the quarry, including registration status. Following on from this, the planning authority had to either take enforcement action, requiring the quarry to cease operations, or direct the quarry operator to apply to the Board for substitute consent under Part XA of the Act, a process involving either EIA or AA, or both, as appropriate.