Vol. 573 No. 3
675 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government his plans to widen the scope of environmental impact assessments for wind farms on mountain, heath or bog locations in response to the continuing mountain bog slide in Derrybrien, Gort, County Galway; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25141/03]
Regulations made under the Planning and Development Act 2000 provide that all planning applications for wind farms with more than five turbines or having a total output greater than five megawatts must be accompanied by an environmental impact statement. In addition, a planning authority, or An Bord Pleanála in the case of an appeal, must request the submission of an EIS for a sub-threshold development where the authority or the board consider that the proposed development would be likely to have significant environmental impact.
These provisions constitute an appropriately wide framework for the examination of the impacts of major developments, including wind farms, and there are no proposals to amend them.
