Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 441: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will accede to requests from the Irish Farmers' Association that he does not allow Ireland's compliance with EU directives on wetlands to introduce new unworkable levels of bureaucracy and additional financial burdens on farmers [25963/11]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The European Court of Justice in 2006 found that Ireland was non-compliant in the manner that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive (85/337/EEC), as amended, was transposed into Irish law.

The court deemed that Ireland was over-reliant on size thresholds in implementing the Directive and did not take other relevant criteria, such as the cumulative impacts of development, the location of the development or activity relative to sensitive sites etc, into account. Ireland was notified that very significant penalties would apply for continued failure to implement the Directive and two sets of Regulations have been introduced to address the findings of the European Court of Justice ruling against Ireland.

The drainage and reclamation of wetlands is the responsibility of my Ministerial colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and remain within the planning system. The Minister introduced the Planning and Development (Amendment) (No.2) Regulations 2011 on 8 September 2011 to address this element of the Court judgement.

Three specific areas covered by the EIA Directive are now regulated by my Department under legislation I signed into law on 8 September 2011, i.e. the European Communities (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Agriculture) Regulations 2011 (S.I. No. 456 of 2011) and these are -

restructuring of rural land holdings,

the use of uncultivated land or semi-natural areas for intensive agriculture, and

land drainage works on lands used for agriculture

My Department's Regulations provide for a screening and consent system that will not only satisfy the requirements of the Directive but will also provide a practical and workable solution that will minimise the administrative burden on farmers. There will be no application fee involved in the screening process and each application will be adjudicated upon on a case by case basis in a timely manner, taking into account the relevant criteria outlined in the Directive.

Mandatory Environmental Impact Assessments will only be required for larger projects which are above specific thresholds set out in the Regulations.

he Regulations will be underpinned by a comprehensive guidance document and a draft of this document is now available on my Department's website and all relevant stakeholders are invited to comment on this guidance during the consultation period which will close on Friday the 21 October 2011.