Written answers

Tuesday, 16 November 2010

Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government

Turbary Rights

9:00 am

Photo of Maureen O'SullivanMaureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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Question 307: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 225 of 4 November 2010, if he will provide the details of each of the number of cases in which his Department, the Environmental Protection Agency or a planning authority has determined that an Environmental Impact Assessment is required for the extraction of peat, pursuant to Directive 85/337/EEC, and the number and details of EIAs undertaken on the basis of such determinations; each case in which his Department, the EPA or a planning authority has determined that an appropriate assessment is required for the extraction of peat, pursuant to Directive 92/43/EEC, and the number and details of appropriate assessments undertaken on the basis of these determinations; and each case in which his Department, the EPA or a planning authority has determined that peat extraction is not an exempted development under Class 17 of Part 3 of Schedule 2 to the Planning and Development Regulations 2001, as amended SI No 600/2001, on the basis that such peat extraction would be likely to have significant effects on the environment. [42459/10]

Photo of John GormleyJohn Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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For purposes of consents given under the Planning and Development Acts, it is a matter for the planning authority in question to decide whether or not an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) or Appropriate Assessment, in accordance with the Habitats Directive, is required. Similarly, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for determining whether an EIA and/or Appropriate Assessment is required in relation to its licensing functions.

My Department collects statistics from planning authorities on the total number of EIA planning applications received in any year, but I am advised that these are not broken down by type of development such as peat extraction. I am not, therefore, in a position to provide the information requested in that regard. My Department does not have information regarding the number of Appropriate Assessments undertaken by Local Authorities, nor does it have information regarding Environmental Impact Assessments and Appropriate Assessments undertaken by the EPA. However, my Department is aware of a number of cases where a determination has been made that EIA is required for proposals relating to turf extraction. I will arrange for details of such cases to be forwarded to the Deputy.

Applications for consent for turf extraction below ten hectares within Special Areas of Conservation and Natural Heritage Areas are decided by me, as Minister, on the basis of the provisions of the European Communities (Natural Habitats) Regulations and the Wildlife Acts. In such circumstances, it is also open to me to require that an Environmental Impact Assessment be carried out where I consider that the proposed activity is likely to have significant effects on the environment.

In my role as a consent authority in this regard, I have refused several requests for consent to extract turf within SACs. I will arrange for details of these requests to be provided to the Deputy as soon as possible.

Following the end of a ten–year grace period granted regarding turf-cutting for domestic purposes in SACs and NHAs, the Government confirmed earlier in 2010 that no further turf extraction should occur in such sites without the explicit consent of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. This applies to 31 raised bog SACs from this year, the remaining 24 raised bog SACs from the end of 2011 and 75 Natural Heritage Areas from the end of 2013. In these sites, appropriate assessment will be required for all such determinations. It will also be open to me to require Environmental Impact Assessment in such cases.

I have no function in determining whether or not a proposal is an exempted development under Class 17 of Part 3 of Schedule 2 to the Planning and Development Regulations 2001.

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