Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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466. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of plans to reform the planning laws to have developments such as data centres regarded as strategic infrastructure allowing them to get through the planning process quickly; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19685/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I am proposing to introduce the necessary legislative steps in the coming weeks to amend the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, in order to classify data centres above a certain size threshold as strategic infrastructure developments.  This change will mean that applications for planning permission for data centres that meet the scale requirements will be made directly to An Bord Pleanála, thereby streamlining the planning decision-making process for such developments. 

I will be tabling the necessary legislative amendment at Seanad Report Stage of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016, which is presently progressing through the Oireachtas and which recently completed Seanad Committee Stage.