End Solar School Delays

The action is in draft mode.

755 / 10000 signatures


  • Schools need planning permission to install even one solar panel on their roof. It's madness, and adds significant cost. Without explanation the Department of Housing has repeatedly kicked the issue to touch over the past 3 years, copying and pasting the same messages but putting out a new delayed timeline roughly once every 3 months. This farcical situation should not be accepted.

  • Most worryingly the Department’s approach has effectively ignored the Government’s Climate Action Plan. The 2019 Climate Action Plan included a commitment to complete the review of regulations by the end of 2019 but this was seemingly ignored. During 2020 and 2021 the Department repeatedly announced new delays by way of answers to parliamentary questions.

  • The 2021 Climate Action Plan includes a commitment to update planning regulations by March 2022. Despite having just made this commitment in December, the Minister for Housing issued(yet another) delayed timeline on the 19th of January this year - this time with yet another delay to later in 2022.

  • And it’s important to note - this is an example of a climate action measure where there isn’t even any political opposition! The planned change enjoys universal support across the Oireachtas yet has been seemingly been dismissed at Departmental level.

  • This raises an obvious question: If we can’t even get a decision that no one is opposing implemented within three years, how is the system going to implement the complex, and at times contested, decisions needed to meet the Climate Law's target of cutting polluting emissions in half by 2030?

Sign our petition to ask the Government to stop messing around and change the planning regulations so that schools and community buildings can put solar panels on their roofs without further delay. Make it possible for every school to be a solar school!

 

Petition Text

I want the Government to finally make good on its promise to update the planning regulations around solar power so that schools can put solar panels on their roofs, without the major expense of planning permission. I'm tired of the repeated delays from Government for the past 3 years and want to see it resolved immediately.

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