Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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496. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 202 of 4 November 2025, if it is proposed to create planning guidelines for the purposes of meeting the State’s obligations to derive energy sources from and including solar technologies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65423/25]

James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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546. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his Department has considered guidelines for industrial-type solar farms; to outline the planning legislation for solar farms; if his Department has discussed the same guidelines with the Department for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in relation to the EU Land Use Policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60442/25]

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 496 and 546 together.

The Programme for Government 2025 – Securing Ireland’s Future reaffirms Ireland’s ambitious targets of 8 GW of solar capacity connected to the grid by 2030, to assist with meeting the requirement of 80% of electricity demand supplied by renewables. Solar energy is a growing source of electricity with circa 2.1 GW of solar power capacity currently installed in Ireland, however further solar capacity is required for Ireland to meet its domestic and international targets.

For this reason, my Department will prepare a new National Planning Statement on Solar Energy under the new Planning and Development Act 2024. My Department has begun an initial scoping process to identify the component factors relevant to the preparation of the National Planning Statement for solar energy development, including any appropriate environmental assessment and public consultation requirements and other relevant European obligations such as the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III), which will determine the timeframe for publication of said guidelines.

This scoping process remains at an early stage but I am satisfied that the existing and evolving planning system, supported by Government policy more generally, provides a sufficiently robust policy and legislative framework to facilitate the rollout of solar energy development in a sustainable manner and to assist with meeting our renewable electricity requirements while balancing the perspectives of local communities and allowing for public and stakeholder engagement.

In the interim, there are currently no specific planning guidelines in place in respect of solar energy development. Proposals for individual solar energy developments are subject to the statutory requirements of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, and the Planning and Development Act 2024, as amended, in the same manner as other proposed developments, with planning applications made to the relevant local planning authority, or An Coimisiún Pleanála on appeal.

The Programme for Government also committed to a Land Use Review to ensure that optimal land use options inform all relevant Government decisions. The second phase of the Land Use Review, which is currently underway, will seek to identify the key demands on land (both public and private) to inform policies for land use across key government objectives, improving socioeconomic, climate, biodiversity, water, and air quality outcomes. The Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine are working towards the conclusion of the second stage of the review. Any National Planning Statement on solar energy development will take into careful consideration any finding of the Land Use Review.