The new Planning and Development (Amendement) Act 2010 contains a number of provisions relating to quarries and these are mainly set out under Section 74 and Section 75. The provisions of the new Act will be commenced and will come into operation by means of orders to be made by the Minister from time to time. As of yet no Commencement Order has been made in relation to Section 74 and Section 75.
The implications of Section 74 and 75 are summarised below;
(i) Requirement for local authorities to prepare a complete inventory of all quarries in their jurisdiction
(ii) Within 9 months of Sections 74 and 75 coming into operation, all planning authorities have to identify the qualifying quarries and determine whether Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) or Appropriate Assessment (AA) or screening for same was required and, if required, was it carried out
(iii) Where a Planning Authority makes a determination that EIA or AA (or Screening for same) was required but not carried out the Planning Authority shall issue notice to the owner or operator of the quarry directing them to apply to the Board for substitute consent in respect of the quarry. Public participation is provided for as part of this process.
(iv) Quarry operators have the right to request a review by An Board Pleanala of the planning authority's direction to apply for substitute consent as set out under Section 261A(1)(g). The requirements for an application for substitute consent are set out in the new Act under Part XA.
(v) The above assumes that either planning permission was obtained for the quarry or it pre-dates October 1964 and the quarry operator, if required to do so, applied for registration under Section 261. If this is not the case, the quarry is not authorised. Quarries that never had planning permission or failed to register under Section 261 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 will not qualify for substitute consent. Improved enforcement provisions contained in the 2010 Act will require local authorities to immediately take enforcement proceedings against quarries which are refused substitute consent or are otherwise non-compliant.
It should be noted that the above is a short summary of the implications of Sections 74 and 75 of the 2010 Act and the complete text of this Act should be consulted and can be downloaded from http://www.oireachtas.ie/viewdoc.asp?fn=/documents/bills28/bills/2009/3409/b34d09d.pdf
