168. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the current status of the seven mineral prospecting licence applications in East Clare (details supplied); if his Department and the Geoscience Regulation Office have considered the deep environmental concerns of the local community regarding potential downstream chemical processing impacts; if he will explicitly address the contradiction between these applications and the Clare County Development Plan, which strictly prohibits the use of chemical substances like cyanide and sulfuric acid in mineral processing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62174/26]

An application for seven Prospecting Licence Areas in southeast Co Clare was received by my Department from the company in question. Following an assessment of the application, and in accordance with the Minerals Development Acts 1940-99, a ‘Notice of Intention to Grant’ the seven Prospecting Licences was published in the Clare Champion newspaper and on www.gov.ie on 23 July 2026. The public were allowed a period of thirty days in which to make submissions in relation to the Notice of Intention to Grant the Licences. Consideration will be given to submissions received in making a final decision on whether or not to grant the licences.

Any industrial activity is subject to environmental permitting requirements commensurate with the activity in question. A Prospecting Licence (PL) only permits the holder to carry out exploration for minerals, such as geological mapping, geochemical sampling, geophysical surveys, drilling, etc. All exploration activities are the subject of environmental screening assessments undertaken by GSRO. A PL does not confer the licensee with any rights to mine or commercially process mineral ores. In the event that a company does discover an economically viable mineral deposit and seeks to work the minerals, any potential mining/processing would require a number of separate consents including;

• Planning permission from the relevant Local Authority

• An integrated Pollution Control (IPC) or an Industrial Emissions (IE) Licence from the Environmental Protection Agency

• A Mining Lease or Licence (State Mining Facility) issued by the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment.

Both the planning and IPC/IE licensing processes involve environmental impact assessment (EIA) and public consultation. Any concerns relating to the environmental impacts of mining and mineral processing should be raised at these consultation stages. A State Mining Facility would only be issued after planning and IPC/IE permissions have been granted.

The Policy Statement on Minerals Exploration and Mining of December 2022 provides for monitoring of County Development Plans