Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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520. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if fire-service capabilities have been evaluated in respect of large-scale battery-storage fires; if national guidance exists regarding the extinguishing, containment, and post-incident environmental management of such fires; and if he will provide reports commissioned by the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management on this matter. [65620/25]

Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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589. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he is satisfied that the Fire Service has adequate training, equipment, and response capability for large-scale BESS incidents; and if capability-gap reviews can be published. [66758/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 520 and 589 together.

My Department, through the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management (NDFEM), supports fire authorities by establishing fire service policy, setting national standards for fire safety and fire service provision, providing a central training programme, issuing guidance on operational and other related matters and providing capital funding for priority infrastructural projects. The provision of a fire service in its functional area, including the establishment and maintenance of a fire brigade, the assessment of fire cover needs and the provision of fire station premises, is a statutory function of individual fire authorities under the Fire Services Act, 1981.

The NDFEM has developed a suite of Standard Operating Guidelines (SOGs) addressing many areas of fire safety. SOG 5.1 ‘Incidents Involving Electricity’ examines the hazards, risks and controls that relate to incidents that involve electricity. A SOG looking at new technologies has now been commenced following a recent meeting of the SOGs project team with the final version targeted to be released in Q3 of 2026. The core training that operational personnel receive through national courses and locally adopted SOGs underpins a risk based approach to safe working at incidents involving Electricity.

Fire Services operate an Incident Command System with risk management protocols and specialised equipment when dealing with incidents involving electricity, ensuring the safety of firefighters working in such hazardous conditions. Firefighters are highly trained in effective and safe firefighting operations.

Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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521. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if environmental impact assessment requirements for solar farms and associated battery-storage facilities include mandatory analysis of contamination risks from fire-water run-off, air emissions, and soil or groundwater pollution; and if he will provide the relevant regulatory documents or inspectorate guidance. [65621/25]

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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As Minister for Housing, Local Government & Heritage, my role in relation to the planning system is, primarily, to provide a policy and legislative framework under which the planning authorities, including An Coimisiún Pleanála (the Commission) and the Office of the Planning Regulator (the OPR) perform their statutory planning functions.

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive specifies projects which, by virtue of their nature, size or location are likely to have significant effects on the environment and should be subject to EIA. The Directive requires projects listed in Annex I of the Directive to be subject to mandatory EIA and provides that Member States may determine whether projects listed in Annex II of the Directive shall be subject to EIA.

Projects requiring an EIA by a planning authority or An Coimisiún Pleanála (the Commission), as appropriate, in respect of an application for planning consent are listed in Part 1 and Part 2 of Schedule 5 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 (the Regulations), as amended, which transpose the list of projects in Annex I and II of the EIA Directive into planning legislation.

Neither stationary battery energy storage systems nor solar farms are listed as an EIA project in either Annex I or II of the EIA Directive.

However, it is not necessarily the case that neither type of development could never require EIA. Circumstances may arise in which such a project may be subject to a requirement for EIA if, for example, one or more aspects of the project potentially comes within the scope of any of the project classes listed in Annex I or Annex II of the Directive and consequently, Part 1 and Part 2 of Schedule 5 to the Regulations, also noting the criteria for sub-threshold development as set out in Schedule 7 of the Regulations.

It would be a matter for a Planning Authorities or An Coimisiún Pleanála to assess a planning application for a proposed stationary battery energy storage development or proposed solar farm development in accordance with the requirements of the EIA Directive and transposing legislation, and determine if an EIA is required or not.