Environment and Planning

Planning and Development Act 2024

The Planning and Development Act 2024 was signed into law by the President on 17 October 2024. It is expected that the act will be commenced in stages, with parallel sections of the Planning and Development Act 2000 repealed at the same time.

Key changes include:

• The introduction of statutory timelines for decision-making
• The Minister for Housing can direct the Commission to give priority to decisions in areas of strategic, economic or social importance
• Significant changes to the criteria and application process for applications for extension of duration of permission
• The duration of development plans will be extended to 10 years
• Amendments to the judicial review of planning decisions

Expedited consenting process for renewable energy development

Regulation 2022/2577 laying down a framework to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy (as amended by Regulation 2024/223) (the Emergency Regulation) and Directive (EU) 2023/2413 (RED III) will expedite the consenting process for renewable development in Europe.

The Emergency Regulation will be directly effective from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025. The regulation provides that renewable energy and grid infrastructure development should be given priority in the planning and permit-granting process when balancing legal interests in a specific case. This regulation is intended to accelerate renewable energy development prior to the transposition deadline of RED III.

RED III must be transposed by 21 May 2025, however key provisions were due to be transposed by 1 July 2024. The European Commission has sent a formal notice to Ireland and several other Member States to carry this out. One provision which fell under this earlier transposition deadline provides that the permit-granting procedure for onshore renewable energy projects must not exceed two years. This may be extended by up to six months in extraordinary circumstances, including where the extension is required for assessments under EU environmental law. The “permit-granting procedure” covers “all relevant administrative permits to build, repower and operate renewable energy plants” (Article 16(1)). In other words, the procedure for obtaining planning permission and any licences, derogations, authorisations or other permits required for the project must not exceed two years.

Separately, the Planning and Environment List has introduced an expedited procedure for the following categories:

• Proceedings alleged to be strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPS)
• Strategic infrastructure development cases
• Challenges to projects within the renewable energy directive
• Access to information on the environment cases

Offshore Wind

A number of offshore wind projects are progressing to the planning stage at present. Important updates include:

• Ireland’s Future Framework for Offshore Renewable Energy has been published. The policy statement sets out plans to explore the possibility of a roadmap for ORE development and to develop a successor support scheme to ORESS. Another action point is to assess the potential to deploy floating offshore wind at scale in Irish waters. The framework also sets out an intention to consider accelerating the development of the West Coast DMAP. Further information is available here.
• The South Coast DMAP was approved by Seanad Éireann and Dáil Éireann. Four maritime areas are identified for development in the map. Development at the first maritime area is intended to commence by 2030, or soon afterwards. The DMAP is available here.
• The Marine Protected Areas Bill 2022 is being assessed and redrafted by an interdepartmental drafting group following issues which arose with the initial bill. The legislation will then be progressed through the Houses of the Oireachtas for enactment. We do not yet have an indicative delivery date of the revised bill.

Nature Restoration Law

The Regulation on Nature Restoration (the "Nature Restoration Law") entered into force on 18 August 2024. The regulation sets an objective for Member States to put in place restoration measures which cover at least 20% of in-scope areas by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. Individual targets relate to restoring degraded habitats to “good condition”, re-establishing habitats in areas where those habitat types do not occur and putting in place restoration measures for the habitats of species listed in the annexes of the Habitats Directive and birds in scope of the Birds Directive. Ireland is obliged to prepare a national restoration plan under the regulation, which should include intermediate deadlines up to 2050. The plan must be submitted to the EU Commission by 1 September 2026, with public consultation prior to publication. An independent Advisory Committee has been appointed to advise on the plan.

Please see our briefing on the effect of the regulation here.

Climate Litigation

We expect further climate action litigation in 2025. A challenge against the State’s Climate Action Plan taken by Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) is expected to be heard in 2025. The CJEU responded to questions referred by the Supreme Court in another challenge by FIE this October. The challenge alleges that the National Planning Framework (NPF) fails to comply with the SEA Directive. In its response, the CJEU considered that the NPF cannot be regarded as falling within the scope of the directive. The case will now progress in the Irish courts.

Internationally, Shell’s successful appeal against a Dutch ruling that the company had to cut its carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 against 2019 levels is generating a lot of interest, as is the landmark ruling of the UK Supreme Court in Finch, on the downstream / end-user climate effects of offshore oil and gas extraction.