An environmental group has made a formal complaint to the planning regulator about An Bord Pleanála’s scrutiny of wind farm cases, claiming it shut out the Health Service Executive from examining many files.
An Bord Pleanála disputes the claims by the Community & Environmental Protection Alliance (Cepa), which represents campaigners in Leinster, Munster and Connacht who object to wind farms in their areas.
Members of the group raised planning concerns when they met then taoiseach Simon Harris in October.
The complaint to planning regulator Niall Cussen also went to the Standards in Public Office Commission, the public ethics watchdog.
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Cepa acknowledged public health fell outside Mr Cussen’s remit but urged him to take the matter to Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.
Wind farm projects are among the most contentious aspects of rural planning, with many schemes under legal challenge.
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The HSE is among two dozen prescribed bodies that can be notified for formal consultation on planning files. HSE notification is compulsory “where the development might have significant effects on public health”.
The complaint comes months after the HSE said its environmental unit had no record of mandatory notifications about two large wind farm projects.
However, Cepa said it has serious concerns about many more projects.
“Specifically, [An Bord Pleanála] has consistently failed to notify the HSE, a statutory consultee, of planning applications for wind energy and biogas developments.”
The group cited as many as 45 cases where the Health Service Executive was “not listed as a prescribed body” in the file or “not notified” of appeals and applications.
The disputed files include strategic infrastructure developments, the fast-track planning procedure that sends applications directly to An Bord Pleanála. Such applications bypass local authorities. Cepa said the HSE was omitted in 50 per cent of reviewed strategic infrastructure cases.
Asked about the complaint, An Bord Pleanála said notification to all prescribed bodies was “not mandatory” and that “the onus is on the [planning] applicant to issue the notifications to the prescribed bodies” when required.
“The prescribed body is only notified if the proposed development falls within the criteria outlined in the prescribed bodies list,” An Bord Pleanála said, citing legal regulations.
“When giving its opinion that a proposed development is strategic infrastructure development at the end of the pre-application consultation process, An Bord Pleanála advises the applicant which prescribed bodies to notify of the application from the list of prescribed bodies.”
The Office of the Planning Regulator [OPR] said: “Under planning legislation, it is a matter for An Bord Pleanála to consider whether proposed strategic infrastructure development might have significant effects on public health and therefore whether the HSE is to be identified as a prescribed body to receive notice of the proposal.”
It added: “The OPR has, in recent days, received correspondence in this regard from a group, which is currently being given all necessary consideration with a view to determining what steps may or may not be required.”
Brenda Dowling of Cepa said the Standards in Public Office Commission replied to the group saying it can deal only with questions about named individuals.
