Dr. Ciarán O'Keeffe:

In most of these cases the work is long since done. Recently we published details of a small number of new sites in the marine areas. We have finished on the SAC front on land where there is a final formal designation process. In terms of the possibility of removing them, in theory it is possible but in practice it is exceedingly difficult to persuade the EU Commission and would have to be based on a scientific purpose. If it can be shown that since the habitats directive came into force the scientific interest, whatever it was, is being lost, the first question is how did one manage to lose it, and that creates a difficulty. If it is still there, it would not normally agree to the removal of a designation. It has not happened so far. We had a look at it in the context of some rivers with pearl mussel sites, which is a difficult species to look after, where we proposed in light of new information that there were possibly some better rivers that we might substitute. We did not succeed because the EU Commission said that these populations are very important in European terms, whether or not, there are better ones in Ireland.