Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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91. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if his Department has examined the impact of delays to the preparation of new planning regulations regarding solar panels on the delivery of related commitments in the Climate Action Plan 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40662/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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As part of a Micro-generation Working Group, established under action 30 of the Climate Action Plan, there has been extensive engagement between my Department and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on a proposed revision to the exemptions for solar installations under the Planning Regulations. The proposed revised exemptions could reduce the barriers to micro and small-scale rooftop solar PV and open up exemptions to new building types including educational, community and apartment buildings. A Strategic Environmental Assessment of the proposed revisions is underway, after which it is expected that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage will bring revised Regulations to the relevant Oireachtas Committee later this year.

In the meantime, domestic solar PV capacity in Ireland is continuing to expand. Supports for domestic rooftop micro-generation have been in place since July 2018 as part of the solar PV scheme administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), and applications in 2021 are increasing at a rate of 75% from 2020. At the end of June this year, 6,718 applications have received grant support under the scheme. Additionally, estimates based on the BER database from the SEAI indicate an installed capacity of 75MW across approximately 30,000 micro-generators, the majority of which are solar PV installations.