Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 February 2022
375. Deputy Ciarán Cannon asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the Department that is currently paying an European Union imposed fine of €15,000 per day associated with the development of an ESB wind farm at Derrybrien, County Galway; and the amount paid to date. [8142/22]
View answerTo date the State has paid €13,220,000 in fines to the European Commission in relation to this case. All payments have been made by my Department.
On 12 November 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued its judgment in case C-261/18, which followed on from the judgment in case C-215/06. The judgment ruled against Ireland and imposed a lump sum fine of €5m and a daily fine of €15,000 until compliance is achieved, plus legal costs.
With regard to the payment of fines, the lump sum fine of €5m was paid in January 2020. The Commission advised that compliance with the judgment would be assessed on a six monthly basis, with a payment demand notice to issue in respect of each assessment period. Three instalments of daily fines have been paid to date totalling €8,220,000, broken down as follows:
- €2,745,000 was paid in October 2020 covering the period of November 2019 to May 2020.
- €2,745,000, was paid in June 2021 covering the period of May 2020 to November 2020.
- €2,730,000 paid in December 2021 covering the period of November 2020 to May 2021.
The court judgment will be complied with when the Derrybrien Wind Farm, which is owned and operated by a subsidiary of ESB, is subjected to a retrospective Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) - otherwise known as substitute consent. An Bord Pleanála (the Board) issued its decision on Friday 4 February, refusing the application for substitute consent.
Once all parties to the case have been notified of this, Department officials will be in touch with their counterparts in the Commission on this basis, to seek to close out the related infringement case against Ireland on the basis of the Board’s decision to refuse permission, noting the ongoing payment of €15,000 per day until the grounds of the infringement case against Ireland (C-261/18) are met.
