Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 October 2021
202. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if exemptions to planning permission fees will be provided for a community and school seeking planning permission to put in place solar panels; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49910/21]
View answerUnder the Planning and Development Act, 2000, as amended (the Act), all development, unless specifically exempted under the Act or associated Regulations, requires planning permission. Section 4 of the Act and Schedule 2 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001, as amended (the Regulations), set out various exemptions from the requirement to obtain planning permission. Any such exemptions are subject to compliance with any general restrictions on exemptions set out in the Act or the Regulations and to the specific conditions set out in each class of exempted development in Schedule 2 of the Regulations. Included in the planning exemptions set out in the Regulations are those applying to the installation of solar infrastructure on a variety of building types, including houses, businesses, industrial and agricultural to which specific conditions are attached.
My Department, in the context of the Climate Action Plan and in consultation with the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, has undertaken a review of the solar panel planning exemptions set out in the Regulations, with a particular focus on facilitating increased self-generation of electricity.
This review is now complete. Substantial changes to the current planning exemption thresholds for solar panels are proposed, as well as the introduction of new classes of solar panel planning exemptions relating to their use in apartments and in educational/community/religious buildings.
As a result of the imminent introduction of the revised exempted development regulations in respect of solar panels and subject to compliance with the conditions attached to the relevant proposed exemptions, there will be no need to seek planning permission for a wide range of solar developments in the above-mentioned classes of buildings. Accordingly, no planning permission fees will apply in this regard.
Notwithstanding this, article 157 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001-2021 sets out certain exemptions from the payment of fees for planning applications for development which 'in the opinion of the planning authority, is development proposed to be carried out by or on behalf of a voluntary organisation, and which in the opinion of the planning authority...is designed or intended to be used for social, recreational, educational or religious purposes by the inhabitants of a locality, or by people of a particular group or religious denomination, and is not to be used mainly for profit or gain...'.
The application of this specific fee exemption provision is a matter for the relevant planning authority and my Department has no role in relation to the matter.
