Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 8:

In page 3, line 29, after “section.” to insert “Any review shall include terms of reference, environmental strategic assessment, environmental impact assessment and public consultation.”.

The Minister of State stated repeatedly today that any review under this Bill, any review of this Act or any review on national heritage areas that are part of our blanket boglands will have a strategic assessment, an environmental assessment and public consultation. I have highlighted that this Bill does not provide for that. It does not contain any reference to a required public consultation, an environmental impact assessment or an environmental strategic assessment. Indeed, a review does not have to contain terms of reference. None of these measures is contained in the Bill. I understand the Minister may wish that such measures would be taken, but my concern is that the legislation does not provide for them. The Minister of State says we will not designate a blanket bog because there has been no scientific analysis; there has been no proper public consultation; there has not been an environmental assessment; we do not know the impact on bird life or on the Birds Directive; we have not considered the ecological species and what it will do in terms of pollinators not just on those bogs but in terms of pollinator pathways; we do not know what the impact will be; we do not know what the levels of carbon sequestration will do; and we have not considered its impact overall on our national climate targets. We have not considered what the consequences will be.

The thing I know that is being considered is the compensatory payments we may have to make to people who are not allowed to cut turf on a site. That cost pales in significance to the many factors that are at play here. There is a real dearth of information. The Minister of State told us repeatedly that there will be strategic impact assessments and public consultation but right now the process in this Bill for the dedesignation of a national heritage area in a blanket bog and in a raised bog is the exact same. I will read the Minister of State's version of the process. It states that the Minister will conduct a review and consider factors such as potentially considered carbon sequestration in selecting the most suitable bog habitats to cease to be designated as a national heritage area. The Minister will consider the restoration potential, the national, regional, local economic and social and cultural needs, the recreational and sporting needs and environmental criteria. The environment criteria the Minister will consider in respect of blanket bogs means the conservation of the blanket bog taking into account a comparison made between the area, range, habitat structure, function and ecological features of that blanket bog and those of one or more than one other blanket bog. Right now all the Minister of State is promising to do is to compare a bog that he is about to dedesignate with another bog. That is it. There is no environmental impact assessment, there is no public consultation and there is no strategic environmental review. However, there is a comparison between that bog and another one.

If the Minister of State accepts my amendment, and I hope he will, it will significantly strengthen the credibility of not just the Minister of State, in terms of the statements he has made in the House, but the credibility of the Government. We see the Taoiseach speaking about his hopes for Ireland as a green country. It would strengthen our credibility if, when we are making significant decisions around the dedesignation of what are currently protected areas, we would have an environmental impact assessment. The Taoiseach said he wants Ireland to be known as a "green county" because of how it responds to "the climate and environmental challenges facing our planet". We have a real opportunity here to ensure that in this one area of policy and this one specific area of decision-making, we will respond to the environmental considerations and assess them. That is the reason I ask the Minister of State to accept this amendment which states that any review he conducts will contain an environmental strategic assessment, environmental impact assessment and public consultation, as he said it should. Accepting this amendment will strengthen the legislation and the mandate and will add far more credibility to any decisions that he or a subsequent Minister will make under the proposed legislation.