Peter Roche (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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542. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the steps his Department is taking to ensure meaningful public consultation in rural communities that are expected to accommodate renewable energy projects significantly larger than those envisaged under current planning guidelines; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60402/25]

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Public participation is a crucial element of all substantive decision-making processes under the Planning and Development Act 2000, and the recently enacted Planning and Development Act 2024. The Programme for Government 2025 – Securing Ireland’s Future contains commitments to introduce planning guidelines for solar energy developments and to prioritise the publication of the Wind Energy Development Guidelines, having regard to international best practice and standards.

Regarding solar energy, 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 National Planning Statement.

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 roll-out 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.

Regarding Wind Energy, My Department is currently undertaking a focused review of the 2006 Wind Energy Development Guidelines which will inform a new National Planning Statement on Wind Energy under 2024 Act. The review is addressing a number of key aspects of the Guidelines including noise, setback distance, shadow flicker, community obligation, community dividend and grid connections.

My Department, in conjunction with the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment (DCEE), which has primary responsibility for environmental noise matters, has been working to advance guidance on the noise aspect of the National Planning Statement, which is highly technical in nature. The two Departments have been engaging on proposals regarding the measurement and assessment of noise from wind turbines to ensure they are robust and fit for purpose having regard to, inter alia, the revised 2030 target to generate up to 80% of our electricity from renewable sources.

Further to this engagement, DCEE, in the context of its environmental noise remit, appointed noise consultants in May 2023 to inform any amendments to the noise aspect of the National Planning Statement. This work is now substantially complete.

My Department, in conjunction with DCEE, will make any further changes to the draft National Planning Statement which are deemed necessary or appropriate in the wake of this work to ensure that the finalised National Planning Statement, once issued, are fit for purpose to provide guidance in line with renewable energy and climate targets, whilst having appropriate regard to the impacts of wind energy development.

The evolving policy and technical context including the new Planning and Development Act 2024 and the recent revision of the National Planning Framework (NPF) reinforces the need to ensure that the finalised Statement, once issued, is fit for purpose.

My Department intends to undertake a public consultation on both the solar and wind Energy National Planning Statements as part of the SEA process whereby all interested parties will have an opportunity to submit observations on the draft National Planning Statement. Finalised National Planning Statements will be prepared following detailed analysis and consideration of the submissions received during the consultation phase.

In addition, it is open to any member of the public to make an observation or submission on a planning application, including in relation to solar energy developments, and the planning authority is statutorily obliged to consider such submissions before making a decision on the application. Persons who make submissions are also entitled to be notified of any significant further information provided to the planning authority by the applicant and to be notified of the authority’s decision on the application.