Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I am finding it difficult to understand the explanation, and I will explain why. First, this is about the obligation to prepare a strategy for conservation of natural and built heritage. Natural heritage is the obvious place where one would place our amendment as regards areas subject to special amenity area orders and the identification of such areas. If they are not included under that heading and that strategy, I do not see where else they would be included. If there were a view that they should be included somewhere else, that could be put forward. As regards these potential conflicts, the situation now is that we have special areas of amenity and, within those areas, conservation areas as well, and there is no conflict. In fact, it is quite complementary to have a conservation area in the same area as a special area of amenity. I sat for many years on the management committee of a special amenity area so I have a lot of experience of this, the management of it, dealing with all the various agencies and so forth. From my experience, far from there being conflicts around having special areas of conservation within amenity areas, it was really a bonus to have those kinds of double levels-----