Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Fleming for his remarks. We enjoyed a good working relationship when he was chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Heritage and Local Government in the last Dáil and I look forward to working closely with him again.

I have a great deal of sympathy for his comments on scientific data. In the national heritage areas, in particular, there is scope to look at the scientific data to assess them properly and to allow for stakeholder consultation and involvement when coming to terms with the data. I also agree that if the data dictate that an area is necessary to meet our EU obligations under the habitats directive, it will be designated. Equally, if there are national heritage areas where the scientific data do not stand up to scrutiny, we should not designate those areas.

I have sympathy with the idea the EU scrutiny committee should have been more active in the past when we were negotiating many of these areas that have now passed through the system. In May 2010, 31 such areas were approved by the European Commission in conjunction with the Department on this issue. I suspect everything was in order there for the scientific data but we will deal with many more of these in the coming years so we must have a system in place that will give clarification on the issue in the scientific data while offering the opportunity for stakeholders to be satisfied that the data stands up and that the designation that will ultimately be applied is legitimate.

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