S.I. No. 320/2026 - European Communities (Birds and Natural Habitats) (Amendment) Regulations 2026

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of 14th July, 2026.

I, JAMES BROWNE, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972 (No. 27 of 1972) and for the purpose of giving effect to Articles 16b(2) and 16f of Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018¹ , as amended by Directive (EU) 2023/2413 of the European Parliament of the Council of 18 October 2023² , hereby make the following regulations:

PART 1 PRELIMINARY AND GENERAL

Citation

1.

Definition

2.

PART 2 AMENDMENTS TO PRINCIPAL REGULATIONS

Amendment to Regulation 2 of Principal Regulations

3.

• (a) by the insertion of the following definitions after the definition of recreational watercraft:

“ ‘renewable energy’ has the meaning given to it in paragraph (1) of Article 2 of the Renewable Energy Directive;

‘Renewable Energy Directive’ means Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018¹ on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources, as amended by Directive (EU) 2023/2413 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 October 2023² amending Directive (EU) 2018/2001, Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 and Directive 98/70/EC as regards the promotion of energy from renewable sources, and repealing Council Directive (EU) 2015/652;

‘renewables acceleration area’ has the meaning given to it in paragraph (9a) of Article 2 of the Renewable Energy Directive;”, and

• (b) by the substitution of the following definition for the definition of project:

“ ‘project’, subject to the exclusion, except where the contrary intention appears, of any project requiring development consent within the meaning of the Planning and Development Act 2000 or a development which is subject to Part XAB of that Act, includes—

• (a) land use or infrastructural developments, including any development of land or on land,

• (b) the extraction or exploitation of mineral resources, prospecting for mineral resources, turf cutting, or the exploitation of renewable energy resources, or

• (c) any other land use activities,

that are to be considered for adoption, execution, authorisation or approval, including the revision, review, renewal or extension of the expiry date of previous approvals, by a public authority and, notwithstanding the generality of the preceding, includes any project referred to at paragraph (a), (b) or (c) to which the exercise of statutory power in favour of that project or any approval sought for that project under any of the enactments set out in the Second Schedule of these Regulations applies;”.

Insertion of Regulation 43D into Principal Regulations

4.

“Overriding public interest and serving public health and safety

43D. Notwithstanding these Regulations and the Wildlife Act 1976 , for the purposes of Article 16f of the Renewable Energy Directive, until climate neutrality is achieved, where a renewable energy project or any part thereof consists of—

• (a) the planning, construction and operation of a renewable energy plant,

• (b) the connection of such a plant to the grid,

• (c) the grid referred to in paragraph (b), or

• (d) storage assets,

such a renewable energy project is presumed as—

- (i) being in the overriding public interest, and

- (ii) serving public health and safety,

  when balancing legal interests in individual cases for the purposes of—

    - (I) Article 6(4) and point (c) of Article 16(1) of the Habitats Directive, and

    - (II) point (a) of Article 9(1) of the Birds Directive.”.

Insertion of Regulation 55B into Principal Regulations

5.

“Mitigation measures in relation to protection of species in permit-granting procedure for renewable energy projects outside renewables acceleration areas

55B. (1) Notwithstanding Regulation 51 and the Wildlife Act 1976 , in relation to prohibitions on deliberate killing or disturbance of the species protected under Article 5 of the Birds Directive in that Act where those prohibitions are necessitated by the State’s obligations under European Union law, paragraph (2) shall apply for the purposes of Article 16b(2) of the Renewable Energy Directive.

• (2) Where a renewable energy project, other than where the project is within a renewables acceleration area, has adopted necessary mitigation measures, any killing or disturbance of the species protected under—

  • (a) Article 12(1) of the Habitats Directive, or

  • (b) Article 5 of the Birds Directive,

  shall not be considered to be deliberate.”.

GIVEN under my Official Seal,

9 July 2026.

JAMES BROWN,

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation.)

The purpose of these Regulations is to amend the European Communities (Birds and Natural Habitats) Regulations 2011—

• (a) in the definition of project, in order to clarify that projects which are subject to the Appropriate Assessment provisions in Part XAB of the Planning and Development Act 2000 are not also required to be subjected to the Appropriate Assessment process under those Regulations, and

• (b) to transpose the requirements of Articles 16b(2) and 16f of the Renewable Energy Directive into the law of the State.

Footnotes