Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 651: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if his attention has been drawn by civil servants in his Department to the suggestions arising from the European Commission's Kampsax report on the EIA for the M50 at the Carrickmines Castle complex raised with the Irish authorities at a meeting in May 2004 and specified at a meeting of the NDP-CSF environmental co-ordinating committee 2000-2006 held on 12 October 2004; and if he will report on these recommendations and the actions taken by his Department to implement them. [8863/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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My Department was consulted by, and submitted observations in 2003 to the European Commission in relation to a report conducted on behalf of the Commission into issues relating to the EIA carried out for the south eastern motorway at Carrickmines. However, my Department has not formally received any recommendations from the Commission in this regard.

The issue of archaeology and environmental impact statements was raised by the Commission in a general way only during a meeting with Irish officials on 7 May 2004 in relation to implementation of the EIA and SEVESO directives. The report of the NDP-CSF environment co-ordinating committee meeting on 12 October 2004 "noted that the five points raised in the Kampsax Report on Carrickmines Castle/M50 have been communicated to the European Parliament in the context of a Petition".

My Department and its associated agencies has a policy of providing guidance on best practice in the preparation of environmental impact statements. The EIS in relation to the south eastern motorway was published in September 1997 and approved by the then Minister in 1998. Since then a policy document, Framework and Principles for the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage, was published in 1999 and followed in 2000 by the code of practice between the National Roads Authority and the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands. In 2002, the EPA published guidelines on information to be contained in environmental impact statements and followed this with advice notes on current practice in preparation of environment impact statements.

The NRA will shortly issue for public consultation draft guidelines in relation to the environmental impact assessment of road schemes and also draft guidelines in relation to archaeology in the context of the planning of road schemes.