Anthony Lawlor
Question:9. Deputy Anthony Lawlor asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government when the wind energy development guidelines will be published. [38228/15]
View answerThursday, 5 November 2015
Questions (9)
Oral answers (8 contributions)
Two years, along with 7,500 other people, I made a submission in relation to the wind energy guidelines. When will those guidelines be delivered?
I responded earlier to a similar question. In December 2013, my Department published proposed draft revisions to the noise, setback and shadow flicker aspects of the 2006 wind energy development guidelines. The draft revisions proposed the setting of a more stringent day and night noise limit of 40 decibels for future wind energy developments, a mandatory minimum setback of 500 m between a wind turbine and the nearest dwelling for amenity considerations, and the elimination of shadow flicker between wind turbines and neighbouring dwellings.
A public consultation process was initiated on these proposed draft revisions to the guidelines, which ran until 21 February 2014. My Department received submissions from 7,500 organisations and members of the public, including the Deputy, during this public consultation process. It is intended that the revisions to the 2006 wind energy development guidelines will be finalised as soon as possible. In this regard, account must be taken of the extensive response to the public consultation in framing the final guidelines. I can assure the Deputy that this had a large influence on the work that is being undertaken. Further work is also advancing to develop technical appendices to assist planning authorities with the practical application of the noise measurement aspects of the wind guidelines. There are many technical issues surrounding the development and expansion of these types of turbines. My Department is advancing work on the guidelines in conjunction with the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.
The revisions to the wind energy development guidelines 2006, when finalised, will be issued under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended. Planning authorities and, where applicable, An Bord Pleanála are required to have regard to guidelines issued under section 28 in the performance of their functions under the Planning Acts.
I have been asking this question for the past eight months, in response to which I continually get the same waffle from the Department. When will these guidelines be published? The 7,500 people who made submissions on the guidelines have been led up the garden path for the past 18 months. We need this decision to be made now. The aim of the Strategy for Renewable Energy 2012-2020 is to ensure best practice, planning and permitted procedures and coherence between environmental and renewable energy objectives. The strategy refers to willing public acceptance around environmental and other impacts and securing benefits for local communities. None of this has happened. A year and nine months later, the 7,500 people who made submissions on the guidelines are still waiting for them to be published. When will a decision be made to publish those guidelines?
I thank the Deputy for his supplementary question. This is an important issue and one in which I have taken a direct interest. The Minister of State, Deputy Coffey, and I have done a great deal of work on the matter. It is a technical area. I can assure the Deputy that virtually all of the work has been completed. Further work on the setback distance from a technical point of view remains to be completed. Once that work has been completed the guidelines, if supported by my Government colleagues in Fine Gael, will be published. They will be brought forward as quickly as possible within that framework.
We must be cognisant of the fact that I am the Minister with responsibility for planning. Through that process, I will issue guidelines that are best for planning. There are other Departments who have an interest in this issue for other reasons, including from an energy point of view in the context of our 2020 targets.
The Minister is a straight talker. Perhaps he would give me a straight answer to my question. I put the question to him in a manner which required him to respond with a likely date for publication of the guidelines rather than make a statement on the matter. As I said earlier, 7,500 people made submissions on the guidelines and they are waiting for them to be published. Current planning applications before An Bord Pleanála are being made on the basis of the 2006 guidelines. We have been waiting 18 months for the new guidelines. Can the Minister give a definite date for when they will be published?
It is a matter for Government when the guidelines will be published.
The Deputy may want to refer that issue to his party leader and Taoiseach. When I talk about getting the mix right, I ask the Deputy to trust that I have executed all my work in relation to this topic. The majority of it is all done but there is a little technical issue that needs to be dealt with. When we speak about getting the balance right as regards ensuring that our requirements under the 2020 process are met, that is important too. My main focus is on planning and I have very definitive views on this issue as regards turbine heights, locations and so on.
Are they published?
They have to come through Government. They cannot unilaterally come through me; they have to come through Government. In relation to that mix, we have to ensure that every sector is covered and protected going into the future from an energy and a climate change point of view, particularly the agricultural sector, in which the Deputy has a keen interest, as have I.