Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Gearagh, as the Deputy mentioned, is a privately owned site and has not been considered for national park status. My Department does not own or manage any part of this special area of conservation, SAC, which is owned largely by the ESB. A management plan scoping exercise was undertaken by ESB International on behalf of the ESB in 2016 and 2017. The National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, of my Department took part in the stakeholder group that contributed to the report produced as a result of that exercise. The ESB is now in the early stages of compiling a draft management plan for the site. As part of the process, it recently consulted with NPWS staff in County Cork.

The NPWS completed and published detailed site-specific conservation objectives for the Gearagh SAC in September 2016. Under the habitats directive, Ireland is obliged to report to the EU on the conservation status of all habitats and species of European Community interest, as listed in annexes to the directive. Monitoring of SACs is carried out by the NPWS on a cyclical basis. The most recent report was submitted to the EU in 2019 and is available on the NPWS website.

The priority habitat of alluvial forests with alder and ash is one of the qualifying interests of the Gearagh SAC and a monitoring site for this habitat is located within the SAC. It was most recently surveyed during the 2017 and 2018 monitoring period, when the area, structures, functions and future prospects of the habitat in the SAC were all assessed as favourable. This is in contrast with the national conservation status of alluvial forest habitat in Ireland, which is considered to be bad, and deteriorating. The Gearagh SAC is also listed as a habitat of rivers with muddy banks. In addition to the NPWS survey, results of a 2018 botanical survey were made available to the NPWS by the ESB. The habitat was assessed as favourable in the Gearagh SAC. The NPWS continues to engage with the ESB on the monitoring of this site. The positive findings from scientific surveys are indicators of a good management regime.

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