The European Commission has confirmed the closing of the Derrybrien infringement case, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has announced today (Friday, February 3).
Daily fines of €15,000 being applied against the Irish state in relation to the Derrybrien wind farm in Co. Galway will cease.
The commission considers that, on foot of An Bord Pleanála’s decision in February 2022 to refuse substitute consent, Ireland has taken all measures necessary to ensure compliance with the judgment.
The final sum due to be paid by the state is €1,245,000 which covers the period from November 13, 2021 to February 4, 2022, the department said.
Once the final instalment of daily fines is paid, commission services will initiate an internal process to propose to the College of Commissioners to close this file.
Details in relation to the future of the site in terms of decommissioning and site restoration is a matter for Galway County Council, as the relevant planning authority, and the owner of the site to address.
Derrybrien
The wind farm is owned and operated by a subsidiary company of the Electricity Supply Board (ESB), which in March 2022 decided to cease operations at the wind farm permanently.
It is understood that the ESB is preparing to decommission the wind farm in line with regulatory and legal requirements, the department said.
In 2003, there was a major landslide as the wind farm was being constructed by Gort Windfarms Ltd, which had significant effects on the environment.
In November 2019, Ireland was fined €5 million in the European Court of Justice (CJEU) as well as an ongoing fine of €15,000 per day for the state’s failure to carry out an environmental impact assessment (EIA) at the site.
Court case
The Derrybrien wind farm development has been the subject of the commission infringement proceedings pursuant to an infringement case, and judgements of the CJEU in two cases.
The CJEU case relates to Ireland’s non-compliance with a prior judgment from July 2008, specifically the non-compliance of a development consent for the wind farm with the EIA directive.
In May 2022 department officials wrote to the commission to seek to close out the related infringement case against Ireland on the basis of the board’s decision to refuse permission for the wind farm.
In a further letter issued in September 2022, the department emphasised that the enforcement process initiated on foot of the decision by the board to refuse substitute consent is a separate process to the retrospective EIA process.