Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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101. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the position regarding an application to plant land in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39197/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The application by the person named was refused on 8 November 2011 because the site proposed for afforestation was considered likely to have an adverse impact on existing landscape values. The person named submitted a further application which has since been approved, subject to conditions, on a reduced area. This site is within an area of high archaeological and landscape significance. In considering applications to afforest in such areas, the Department must have regard to the impact of the scale of the proposed planting on, inter alia, the landscape, the archaeological features on site, and to the observations of the relevant statutory authorities including Inland Fisheries Ireland, National Monuments Service and the local authority.

Having completed this analysis the Department decided to approve, subject to conditions, the second application for a reduced area having taken account of the views of the statutory bodies and the likely impact that the scale of the proposed planting would have on the environment.