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Environment Minister Phil Hogan has signed the Planning and
Development (Amendment) Act 2010 (Commencement) (No.3) (Order
2011).
This Order commences sections 74 and 75 of the Planning
and Development Act (Amendment) Act 2010, enacted 26th July
2010, which amend section 261 and insert a new section, 261A,
into the Planning and Development Act 2000. Section 261A contains
new provisions in relation to regulation of quarries.
Following the decision of the European Court of Justice in
the case C-215-06 on 3rd July 2008, Ireland was required to
remove the facility to apply for retention planning permission
in the case of projects which would have required environmental
impact assessment under Directive 85/337/EEC (the Environmental
Impact Assessment Directive).
This decision affected a number of quarries which had carried
out unauthorised development which would have required environmental
impact assessment - such quarries would now be unable to apply
for retention permission and would have no means of regularising
their operations.
A new substitute consent procedure was legislated for, whereby
projects requiring environmental impact assessment could apply
for a form of retention - but this was necessarily limited
to highly exceptional cases - e.g. a planning permission found
defective by a court.
To deal with this situation, it was agreed that, for a very
limited period, quarries which had commenced prior to the
inception of the planning system in 1964, or which had obtained
a planning permission at some stage, would be permitted to
apply for substitute consent for unauthorised development
which was in breach of the EIA/Habitats Directive, without
having to prove exceptional circumstances. This would
be conditional on such quarries having registered in 2004-2005
if required to do so. These provisions are contained in the
new section 261A.
Section 261A also provides, however, that, where a quarry
was always unauthorised - i.e. it commenced on or after 1
October 1964 and never obtaining planning permission, or it
failed to register in 2004-2005 if required to do so - it
will not be permitted to apply for substitute consent and,
instead, an enforcement notice will be issued requiring the
quarry to cease operation.
The Minister also signed the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions)
Act 2011 (Commencement) (Part 5) (No.2) Order 2011. This commences
sections 28 and 29 of the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions)
Act 2011 - enacted 2nd August 2011 - which amend sections
157 and 160 of the 2000 Planning Act to effectively provide
that there will no longer be a limitation of 7 years on the
taking of enforcement action against unauthorised quarries
or unauthorised peat extraction.
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