Written answers

Thursday, 15 September 2011

Department of Environment, Community and Local Government

EU Directives

5:00 pm

Photo of Joe McHughJoe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 99: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide a definition of wetlands regarding the land and improvement legislation; if he will describe the environmental impact assessment and the planning process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24381/11]

Photo of Willie PenroseWillie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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The provisions of Council Directive 85/337/EEC on the assessment of the effect of certain public and private projects on the environment (the EIA Directive, as amended in 1997 and 2003) were transposed into Irish legislation by the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended) and the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 (as amended). Schedule 5 of the 2001 Regulations specifies relevant development for the purposes of Part X of the Act, which deals with EIA.

In accordance with the Directive, certain thresholds were set below which development need not necessarily be subject to environmental impact assessment. However, where a planning application for sub-threshold development is submitted to a planning authority, under the 2000 Act that authority may, where it considers that the development would be likely to have significant effects on the environment, require the submission of an environmental impact statement (EIS). Similarly, in the case of an appeal relating to a planning application for sub-threshold development, An Bord Pleanála may, where it considers that the development would be likely to have significant effects on the environment, require the submission of an EIS.

In Case C-66/06, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) found that Ireland's system of screening projects to assess the requirement to carry out EIA for certain categories of agriculture development was over-reliant on size thresholds and did not take sufficient account of other relevant criteria such as the cumulative effects of development and the location of those developments. In June 2011, the Commission referred this case back to the Court to seek the imposition of both lump sum and daily fines for failure to act on the findings of the judgment and extensive consultations and action have been taken to minimise the risk of exposure to fines and to expedite resolution of the case.

In response to the Court's finding, my Department and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food have been working together, in consultation with the Commission, to fully address the Court findings and ensure that Ireland is fully compliant with the Directive. It has been agreed that it is more efficient and appropriate to transfer responsibility for most of the activities covered by the judgment, such as the re-structuring of fields and removal of hedgerows and boundaries, the use of uncultivated land or semi-natural areas for intensive agriculture and normal field drainage works to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food as part of its wider management responsibilities for overseeing agricultural activities and integrating environmental considerations into relevant schemes. The only element of the judgment being retained within the planning system is on-farm development activity that impacts on the drainage or reclamation of wetlands, which are regarded as highly environmentally sensitive areas.

Following approval by the Oireachtas of the draft Regulations, I signed the Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2011, on 8 September 2011, which introduce a number of amendments to address the ECJ findings in this case.

A definition of "wetlands" has been inserted into Article 5 of the Regulations as meaning:

"natural or artificial areas where biogeochemical functions depend notably on constant or periodic shallow inundation, or saturation, by standing or flowing fresh, brackish or saline water."

Guidance on this definition and a fuller description of the areas included in the definition will be given in a guidance document to accompany these new regulations. This guidance will issue for consideration in draft form in the coming days.

The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has also signed, on 8 September, new European Communities (Agricultural Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2011 which provide for a new system of screening for environmental impact above certain thresholds for different types of agricultural activity, and the requirement for the Minister's consent to be sought and mandatory EIA to be carried out on such projects at a higher threshold level.

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