Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 3, line 13, to delete “section 18A(4)(a)” and substitute “section 18A(5)(a)”.

The grouped amendments are technical in nature and arise from the proposed insertion of a new subsection (2) into section 18A and the resultant renumbering of subsections 18A(2) to 18A(7). Amendment No. 3 provides for the substitution of new text for the text of lines 20 to 23 in page 3 of the Bill. It provides that the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht will continue to conduct and complete the 2014 review of the raised bog natural heritage area network and may conduct a review or reviews of other natural heritage areas. This would be done under a proposed new section 18A of the Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000. The intention of the amendment is to give the Minister the power to conduct a review or reviews of other natural heritage areas at some point in the future without obliging the Minister to do so.

Amendment No. 4 inserts a new subsection (2) within section 18A. It provides that a review or reviews are limited to the natural heritage areas in respect of which natural heritage area orders are in force on the date of the commencement of section 18A. If this amendment is accepted, section 18A(2) becomes section 18A(3) and similarly for sections 18A(3) to 18A(7).

Amendment No. 10 provides for widening the scope of section 18A(3), in respect of the carrying out of environmental assessments, to cover the proposals arising from a review or reviews of other natural heritage areas as well as from the 2014 review of the raised bog natural heritage area network. It provides that these environmental assessments would also be carried out, as required, in respect of the effects on the environment of the proposals arising from a review or reviews of other natural heritage areas. If Amendment No. 10 is accepted, section 18A(3) would commence as “The Minister shall, in relation to the effects on the environment of the proposals arising from a review under subsection (1)”.

Amendment No. 12 provides that the provisions of section 18A(4) would apply on the completion of a review or reviews of other natural heritage areas as well as on the completion of the 2014 review of the raised bog natural heritage area network. If amendment No. 12 is accepted, section 18A(4) would commence as "Having, on the completion of a review under subsection (1),". Section 18A(4) provides that the Minister shall, on the completion of a review of natural heritage areas, where he or she is satisfied that a natural heritage area order should be made, publish under section 16 of the Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000 a notice of his or her intention to make the natural heritage area order and, where he or she is satisfied that land should cease to be designated as a natural heritage area, make an order to amend or revoke the natural heritage area order which so designated the land.

Amendment No. 24 is a technical amendment arising from the replacement of the definition of "habitat" with "bog habitat" and the consequent need for the deletion of the definition of "habitat".

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