Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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37. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the reason the draft National Biodiversity Action Plan 2017-2021 contains no actions in relation to the network of natural heritage areas; and the reason actions contemplated in the plan to designate proposed NHAS and to strengthen the coherence, connectivity and resilience of the protected areas network, which have not been completed, were not put into the current draft plan. [11751/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department is drafting Ireland’s 3rd National Biodiversity Action Plan 2017-2021. This work contributes to the Government’s commitment to produce a National Heritage Plan and it is also meeting Ireland’s obligations as a Party to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. This will be the third such plan for Ireland, and it will capture the actions for biodiversity that will be undertaken by a wide range of government, civil society and private sectors to achieve a long term vision for Biodiversity: “That biodiversity and ecosystems in Ireland are conserved and restored, delivering benefits essential for all sectors of society and that Ireland contributes to efforts to halt the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystems in the EU and globally”.

The draft Biodiversity Action Plan was developed in cooperation with an inter-departmental Biodiversity Working Group, and the Biodiversity Forum which represents various interested sectors of Irish society. I invited views of the public on the draft Plan on 21st of December 2016.

90 submissions were received, and these will be published on the Department’s website www.npws.ie,with a summary of the views provided and with comment on the main strands of the submissions made.

I recognise the value of Natural Heritage Areas in conserving this country’s rich biodiversity and in providing connectivity and resilience to the Natura network. I note also that there has been a substantial response on this particular matter in the public consultation process. Therefore I will ensure that an action to continue to collect information on sites which are potential Natural Heritage Areas will be included in the Action Plan.

However, I am required under European Directives to focus efforts at this time on the completion of the designation process for the Natura network of SACs and SPAs, and to work through a Conservation Objective setting exercise for these sites, and furthermore a process to identify the Conservation Measures required to safeguard the network. Such tasks demand considerable resources and my Department is therefore constrained in the commitments it can make in regard to further work on proposed Natural Heritage Areas at this time.

At present there are 148 Natural Heritage Areas designated under the Wildlife Acts - 75 raised bogs and 73 blanket bog sites. I am pleased to note that County and Local Development Plans continue to aim to protect both the designated Natural Heritage Areas and the many proposed NHAs which were published in the 1990s.