Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Natura 2000 is the centrepiece of European Union nature and biodiversity policy. It is an EU-wide network of nature protection areas established under the 1992 habitats directive. The aim of the network is to assure the long-term survival of Europe's most valuable and threatened species and habitats. The establishment of this network of protected areas also fulfils a community obligation under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. The criteria for selecting sites eligible for identification as sites of community importance and designated as special areas of conservation are set out in annex III of the habitats directive.

The habitats directive has been fully transposed into Irish law by means of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2010, as amended by the European Communities (Birds and Natural Habitats) Regulations 2011. These replaced the European Communities (Natural Habitats) Regulations 1997 to 2005 and have addressed deficiencies identified by the Court of Justice of the European Union in the transposition of the habitats and birds directives into Irish law.

Following the public advertising of the intention by Ireland to designate 429 special areas of conservation, those sites were transmitted to, and subsequently adopted by, the European Commission as sites of community importance or European sites. Legal protections, consummate with those set out in the habitats directive, have applied to the sites since initially proposed for designation and Ireland's planning and environmental legislation has operated under these designations.

The protections under the habitats directive ensure that no plan or project undertaken in the area or vicinity of any special area of conservation can be commenced without prior consultation with my Department and an appropriate assessment of the likely impacts on the habitats and species protected by the designation.

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