Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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137. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will intervene to oppose plans for wind turbines in east Clare (details supplied); if aviation authorities have been formally consulted in his Department’s mapping exercise; and, if not, if east Clare will be removed from mapped wind areas until full consultation and a cumulative aviation risk assessment are completed. [49126/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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Under the aegis of the Accelerating Renewable Electricity Taskforce, which was established under my Department, work is underway to carry out a coordinated national mapping exercise in compliance with the requirements of Article 15b of the recast Renewable Electricity Directive 2023/2413 (RED III).

This work has been undertaken in consultation with all 31 Local Authorities, noting that lands have already been identified and designated by several Local Authorities in existing City/County Development Plans for renewable energy development, in particular grid scale onshore wind and solar PV. These plans have been subject to environmental assessments and statutory public consultation and are adopted by each Local Authority.

On this basis, my Department wrote to each Local Authority and requested that they provide their existing spatial plans. This material has been received and collated into national territory maps, depicting those areas designated by Local Authorities for both grid scale onshore wind and solar PV, and amalgamates and harmonises all the various Local Authority designations into uniform national classifications. It is important to note that these maps do not alter or amend any existing City/County Development Plan, nor does it affect their status under any enactment.

On 3 September 2025, my Department launched a non-statutory Public Consultation on the national territory mapping running until Friday 10 October 2025. This non-statutory public consultation aims to take into account the views of the public, in the inclusion of areas already designated for renewable energy generation in existing plans for the purposes of the mapping exercise required under Article 15b of REDIII.

Further information on this Public Consultation is available on my Department’s website.

Regarding the planning applications referred to by the Deputy, as Minister, I have no role in the consideration of individual planning applications as these matters are for the relevant planning authority or An Coimisiún Pleanála as appropriate.