Mr. Brian Lucas:

To make it clear, there is no proposal to de-designate SACs. The Bill was amended in the Dáil to provide that a Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht could at some point in the future undertake a review or reviews of blanket bog NHAs. This in no way means that the Minister would de-designate NHAs. It could even mean that the Minister might decide to designate new NHAs. I do not want people running out the door thinking that the Minister would do that tomorrow. In my view, based on what is in the Bill and on what was done for the 2014 review, the first thing that would need to happen would be a comprehensive scientific review of the whole blanket bog network encompassing the blanket bog SACs, the blanket bog NHAs and undesignated blanket bog sites. This would take quite an amount of time on its own so I do no think any Minister could de-designate NHAs next week or when the Bill is passed in the new year. The first thing that would have to be done is a comprehensive scientific review of the blanket bog network. I do not think it would be possible to carry out a proper review without undertaking those steps. There are criteria and checks and balances in the Bill as well but the first thing that would have to be done would be a very comprehensive and wide-ranging scientific review. One could not undertake a review of the blanket bog NHAs without doing that, as was done for the raised bog NHAs.

If the Department and the Minister were to undertake a similar review, they would have to follow a similar approach.