Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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489. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of environmental impact assessments that were carried out on the planting of forestry, by county, in each of the years 2013 to 2017. [5891/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The EIA Directive (meaning Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 as amended by Directive 2014/52/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014) requires that certain types of development, including afforestation and forest road works, must be assessed to determine the likely environmental effect of the development, before a licence can be granted.

The licensing system operated by my Department, as set out in the Forestry Regulations 2017, (SI 191/2017), (“the Regulations”), provides for an environmental impact assessment (EIA) to be carried out in certain cases.  An EIA is mandatory for initial afforestation involving an area of 50 hectares or more, and for forest road works involving a length of 2,000 metres or more.  Applications for such projects must be accompanied by an environmental impact statement (EIS), to enable my Department to undertake the EIA.  An EIS is an environmental impact assessment report satisfying the requirements of Article 5.1 of the EU Directive and prepared by competent experts.  The information to be contained in an EIS is set out in Schedule 4 of the Regulations.

In addition, the Forestry Regulations 2017 provide that all proposed afforestation and forest road works below the above mandatory thresholds must be screened for EIA, to consider whether or not significant effects on the environment are likely.  This consideration must take into account criteria involving the characteristic of the project, its location, and the type and characteristics of the potential impact, as set out in Schedule 3 of the Regulations.  Where it is considered that a proposed sub-threshold development is likely to have significant effects on the environment and should therefore be subject to an EIA, my Department requires the applicant to submit an EIS to enable the EIA to be undertaken.

EIA screening is an assessment undertaken by my Department as part of the normal procedure for evaluating the silvicultural and environmental suitability of a proposed development.  The District Forestry Inspector undertakes EIA screening by responding to questions under the various headings: project description; existing land use; cumulative effect and extent of the project; water; soil; protection of Freshwater Pearl Mussel; archaeology; landscape; designated habitats; non-designated habitats; social; accidents; trans-frontier; public participation and NGO participation.  This is supported by spatial analysis concerning the area of forest within various hinterlands of the proposed development.  In undertaking the EIA screening, the Inspector uses information gained from their scrutiny of aerial photographs of the site and various Geographic Information System (GIS) layers available in the IFORIS mapping system, combined with their knowledge gained through (inter alia) the scrutiny of other third party datasets, through field inspection, and through a review of referral responses (if any) received from consulted bodies, and submissions from third parties.

My Department has various options to address individual environmental concerns that arise in relation to a proposed forest development.  For example, specific conditions, such as increased setbacks or exclusions, can be added to the licence, to avoid any impact.  My Department may seek further information in the form of an expert report in relation to, e.g. archaeology; potential Annex 1 habitats; concerns regarding groundwater; and address any potential impacts identified thorough licence conditions.  Furthermore, my Department has incorporated several protocols into the assessment process, designed to avoid impact concerning particular sensitivities, e.g. surface water acidification; Hen Harrier; Curlew; Freshwater Pearl Mussel; and Small White Orchid.

Therefore, while the EIA screening process may identify potential environmental impacts, these can often be addressed in an individual basis and do not culminate in a significant environment impact, which would otherwise trigger an EIA.  No environmental impact assessments were carried out in relation to afforestation in the years 2013 to 2017.