Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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224. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if a planning condition approved by a county council planning authority for a development can be overridden as part of a site resolution plan for the development [44687/22]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Section 34(4) of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended (the Act), provides for the attaching of conditions to planning permissions by planning authorities. Under section 34(5) of the Act, conditions may provide that points of detail relating to a grant of permission may subsequently be agreed between the planning authority and the person carrying out the development. If the planning authority and that person fail to reach agreement on the matter, then it may be referred to An Bord Pleanála (the Board) for determination.

Section 146A of the Act allows for amendments of a clerical or technical nature of planning permissions. A planning authority or the Board may amend a planning permission granted by it for the purposes of: correcting any clerical errors; facilitating an action reasonably regarded as having been contemplated by a particular provision but not expressly provided for in the permission or decision; or otherwise facilitating the operation of the permission or decision. A planning authority or the Board shall not exercise these powers if to do so would, in its opinion, result in a material alteration of the terms of the development, the subject of the permission or decision concerned.

Before it decides to exercise the powers under Section 146A of the Act, a planning authority or the Board may invite submissions in relation to the matter to be made to it by any person who made submissions or observations to it in relation to the permission or other matter concerned and shall have regard to any submissions made to it on foot of that invitation.

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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225. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when the updated planning exemptions to allow for solar photovoltaic panels will be updated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44731/22]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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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, including those relating to the installation of solar panels on the roofs of houses, as well as the introduction of new classes of solar panel planning exemptions for apartments and educational/community/sports buildings.

The draft regulations have been reviewed under the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directive 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 draft regulations have also been screened for Appropriate Assessment (AA) under the Habitats Directive by my Department’s Ecological Assessment Unit (EAU) and the need for AA has been screened out.

A public consultation on the draft solar regulations as part of the SEA process ran from 15 June 2022 to 13 July 2022. My Department is currently reviewing written submissions and observations received as part of the public consultation, which will be taken into consideration before the finalisation of the draft regulations.

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. It is intended that the process for finalising the solar panel planning exemptions will be completed in the coming weeks.