Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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630. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the reason it is taking so long to sign legislation regarding bogs under section 160 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as inserted by section 29 of the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 201,1 that has been served to continue harvesting of peat. [23593/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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My Department, in consultation with the Environment Protection Agency, is actively progressing the drafting of European Union Regulations with a view to putting in place as speedily as possible a robust and effective legislative underpinning for a proposed new regulatory system for the large-scale peat extraction sector. Under the new system, the Agency will be required to carry out environmental impact assessment as part of its examination of licence applications for peat extraction on sites in excess of 30 hectares, and such activity will be exempted from the requirement to obtain planning permission.

The Regulations under preparation do not propose any amendment of section 160 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, relating to planning enforcement.