Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 December 2015
559. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the regulations governing the construction and maintenance of aviation fuel pipelines; if these are adequate to ensure the safe functioning of any aviation fuel pipeline built here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42343/15]
View answerThe construction and maintenance of aviation fuel pipelines is subject to the normal planning processes provided for in the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, and Regulations made thereunder. Thus, planning permission is required for such development from the planning authority concerned, or An Bord Pleanála on appeal, and the process of determining whether permission should be granted for such type of development includes requirements relating to the submission of a detailed environmental impact statement and appropriate assessment, where necessary, as well as a safety and environmental impact evaluation which is effectively a risk analysis as to the safety of the proposal as against alternative options relating to the supply of aviation fuel at the airport. The determination of any such planning application would, as a matter of course, also generally involve internal consultation by the relevant planning authority with its own Fire Services Section as to the functioning of such a proposed development, if granted permission.
The proposed pipeline in question is presently the subject of an appeal to An Bord Pleanála. Under section 30 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, I am specifically precluded from exercising any power or control in relation to any particular planning case with which a planning authority, or An Bord Pleanála, is or may be concerned. Accordingly I have no function in relation to this matter.
