Mr. John Fitzgerald:

My understanding is that all candidate SACs that were notified to the Commission enjoy protection from the date they were notified.

Returning to the Ballycar, the Deputy mentioned the various options and the SACs within 5 km. It is relevant that when RPS Group carried out the work, it identified one option as being the most likely to enjoy success. It was suggested, as I mentioned earlier, that an appropriate assessment should be carried out on the Lough Gash SAC. However, there were five other SACs in the area and the company concluded that it would have no affect on those areas. Not every SAC within 5 km, therefore, is affecting every single project. I can understand sometimes that there may be frustration around the country with the various existing laws. I cannot apologise for the NPWS following its statutory role. That is the role the Government has given us.

I do not know if there is a narrative suggesting that the NPWS is against everything. That is an unfair portrayal of what happens on the ground. For example, the service is a statutory consultee under the planning process. More than 3,500 applications were referred to us last year by planning authorities for comments and observations. In those cases, the Department did not lodge any appeals on nature conservation grounds against any of the decisions of the local authorities in those cases. Of all of the applications received in the Department through natural and built heritage last year, recommendations were given to the planning authority that permission not be granted in seven cases out of the 3,500 referred. None of those cases related to the NPWS. They related to the built heritage. In 2018, to date, approximately 1,800 projects have been referred to us for our observations and we have not recommended a refusal in any case. I just wanted to put those statistics on the table as well.