Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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316. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will provide information on his Department's review of siting and size conditions for rooftop solar panels on homes and review of exemptions for educational and community buildings as part of the current development of interim planning regulations; if he will provide information on the stated need to consider environmental assessment reporting before finalisation; when the interim planning regulations will be submitted to the Houses of the Oireachtas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41863/21]

Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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318. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his plans to alter planning regulations to reduce the barriers associated with solar panel installation and to allow the installation of solar panels on public buildings, including schools without planning permission; the timeline for same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41874/21]

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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319. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if information will be provided on his Department's review of the siting and size conditions for rooftop solar panels on homes and on the review of exemptions for educational and community buildings as part of the current development of interim planning regulations; if further information will be provided on the stated need to consider environmental assessment reporting before finalisation; when the interim planning regulations will be submitted to the Houses of the Oireachtas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41875/21]

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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327. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will provide information on his Department's review of siting and size conditions for rooftop solar panels on homes and review of exemptions for educational and community buildings, as part of the current development of interim planning regulations; if he will provide information on the stated need to consider environmental assessment reporting before finalisation; when the interim planning regulations will be submitted to the Houses of the Oireachtas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41996/21]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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331. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will report on his Department's review of the siting and size regulations for rooftop solar panels on homes and businesses and the review of exemptions for educational and community buildings as part of the development of interim planning regulations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42043/21]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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332. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will clarify the stated position regarding the need for environmental assessment reporting before the finalisation of interim planning regulations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42044/21]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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333. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when the interim planning regulations for the installation of solar panels will be submitted to the Houses of the Oireachtas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42045/21]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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334. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if information will be provided on his Department's review of siting and size conditions for rooftop solar panels on homes and the review of exemptions for educational and community buildings as part of the current development of interim planning regulations; if further information will be provided on the stated need to consider environmental assessment reporting before finalisation; when the interim planning regulations will be submitted to the Houses of the Oireachtas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42070/21]

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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339. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of his Department's review of the siting and size conditions for rooftop solar panels on homes and the exemptions for educational and community buildings as part of the current development of interim planning regulations; if further information will be provided on the stated need to consider environmental assessment reporting before finalisation; when the interim planning regulations will be submitted to the Houses of the Oireachtas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42194/21]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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344. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if information will be provided on his Department's review of siting and size conditions for rooftop solar panels on homes and the review of exemptions for educational and community buildings as part of the current development of interim planning regulations; if further information will be provided on the stated need to consider environmental assessment reporting before finalisation; when the interim planning regulations will be submitted to the Houses of the Oireachtas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42249/21]

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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351. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will provide information on his Department's review of siting and size conditions for rooftop solar panels on homes and a review of exemptions for educational and community buildings as part of the current development of interim planning regulations; if he will provide information on the stated need to consider environmental assessment reporting before finalisation; when the interim planning regulations will be submitted to the Houses of the Oireachtas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42355/21]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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383. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of a review of siting and size conditions for rooftop solar panels on homes and a review of exemptions for educational and community buildings as part of the current development of interim planning regulations; if he will provide information on the need to consider environmental assessment reporting before finalisation; when the interim planning regulations will be submitted to the Houses of the Oireachtas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42895/21]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 316, 318, 319, 327, 331 to 334, inclusive, 339, 344, 351 and 383 together.

Under the Planning and Development Act, 2000, as amended (the Act), 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 (the Regulations), 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. Included in the planning exemptions set out in the Regulations are those applying to the installation of solar infrastructure on a variety of building types, including houses, businesses, industrial and agricultural to which specific conditions are attached.

My Department, in the context of the Climate Action Plan and in consultation with the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, has undertaken a review of the solar panel planning exemptions set out in the Regulations, with a particular focus on facilitating increased self-generation of electricity.

This review is now complete. Substantial changes to the current planning exemption thresholds for solar panels are proposed, as well as the introduction of new classes of solar panel planning exemptions relating to their use in apartments and in educational/community/religious buildings.

In light of the need to appropriately address aviation safety concerns arising from the “glint and glare” impacts of solar panels and the easing of the solar panel planning exemption thresholds, my Department is in the process of commissioning the development of detailed aviation safeguarding maps which will identify and delineate specific but limited areas in the vicinity of airports and aerodromes (referred to as exclusion zones) within which the exemptions will not apply. This mapping process will take approximately nine months to complete.

Whilst this work is ongoing, my Department proposes to advance interim regulations, adopting a temporary, albeit more stringent, radial approach incorporating initial defined exclusion zones around airports and aerodromes. These interim regulations, allowing for increased solar panel planning exemptions, will cover the vast majority of the land area of the country, only excluding those limited exclusion zones around airports and aerodromes.

The draft interim regulations have been reviewed under the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directive 2001/42/EC and it has been determined that they are likely to have significant effects on the environment, necessitating the undertaking of a full SEA on the draft proposals. The SEA process, involving a public consultation on the proposals, is currently underway and is expected to be completed by mid-December 2021. 

Following the public consultation and consideration of any submissions received, and as required under planning legislation, the proposed exempted development regulations must be laid in draft form before the Houses of the Oireachtas and receive a positive resolution from both Houses before they can be made and the SEA process concluded. 

Accordingly, the process for finalising the interim solar panel planning exemptions as referred to above, with interim exclusion zones around airports and aerodromes, is now expected to be completed in early 2022. As outlined, pending the finalisation of the aforementioned aviation safeguarding maps, these interim regulations will allow for the vast majority of the country to be covered by the proposed new solar panel exemptions apart from those areas in close proximity to airports and aerodromes.

Work on the development of the aviation safeguarding maps for airports and aerodromes is expected to be completed in early 2022. The final supplementary set of regulations - delineating the final exclusion areas around airports and aerodromes in which the exemptions will not apply - will be prepared thereafter and, subject to environmental reporting considerations, will subsequently be laid in draft form before the Houses of the Oireachtas for approval in a timely manner.