{"id":530629,"date":"2026-07-03T06:19:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T06:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/530629\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T06:19:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T06:19:40","slug":"top-government-adviser-calls-for-action-to-roll-back-gold-plated-environmental-legislation-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/530629\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Government adviser calls for action to roll back \u2018gold-plated\u2019 environmental legislation \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A top Government <\/a>adviser has called for new steps to roll back \u201cgold-plated\u201d environmental law, saying excessive measures have been \u201cweaponised\u201d against big infrastructure schemes. <\/p>\n

Businessman Sean O\u2019Driscoll, who is chairman of the Infrastructure Taskforce<\/a>, said new laws to exempt critical infrastructure from national climate goals <\/a>should be quickly followed by moves to curtail environmental screening. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo be fair to the Greens, who were responsible for a lot of this climate legislation, it was very well-intentioned. But it was so expansive and so extensive that it just gave rope for serial objectors to just tie the whole system up in knots,\u201d he said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever the European directives <\/a>are, they will be adhered to. But it is where we have gone way, way in excess of that \u2013 that\u2019s where they will be rolled back.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Driscoll was speaking this week as a public consultation closed on environmental screening in planning. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gone to extremes on environmental-impact assessments<\/a>,\u201d he said, noting how there were 237 such screenings in the State in 2022 compared with 217 in Germany and eight in Denmark. <\/p>\n

Citing a reduction this year in new judicial review cases against An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la, O\u2019Driscoll said new caps on the legal fees litigants can claim in environmental cases were already having an effect.<\/p>\n

He also welcomed the large D\u00e1il majority for newly enacted critical infrastructure planning law. <\/p>\n

This law <\/a>brings designated State projects to the front of the planning queue. Such projects are exempted from Climate Act measures compelling public bodies to perform their functions \u201cin so far as practicable\u201d in a manner consistent with national climate goals.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Driscoll\u2019s taskforce was charged with developing a master plan to unblock energy, water and transport projects. <\/p>\n

He said the plan was on schedule \u2013 praising \u201cphenomenal work\u201d by the Departments of Public Expenditure, Housing and the Attorney General \u2013 but local authorities, utilities and regulators must also take action.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you take local authorities, there\u2019s a complete lack of standardisation when it comes to planning, planning applications, statutory timelines. They all operate at different agendas,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the renewable energy area \u2026 you have people saying, \u2018we can\u2019t get connections to the grid, we can\u2019t get connections to networks, and we\u2019re being told we can\u2019t for the following reasons,\u2019\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a taskforce, we will hold them accountable for the changes they need to bring around.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A top Government adviser has called for new steps to roll back \u201cgold-plated\u201d environmental law, saying excessive measures…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,69393,61,60,2549,58356,82],"class_list":["post-530629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-housing-agency","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-planning-permission","tag-planning-regulator","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}