Written answers

Tuesday, 6 October 2020

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Special Areas of Conservation

Photo of Jennifer WhitmoreJennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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63. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if the outstanding issues in respect of the lack of designation of special areas of conservation here and the consequences of biodiversity loss as a result will be addressed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28227/20]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland is required under the EU Habitats Directive, as well as all other Member States, to depute Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) for the protection of endangered habitats and species as listed in the Directive. Sites are evaluated by National Parks and Wildlife Service scientific staff before being proposed. Where lands are being proposed, each landowner is notified in writing and is sent an information pack on the relevant site. A three-month period is provided for lodging an objection to a proposed designation.

Following the conclusion of the notification and objections process, the European Commission is advised of sites to be adopted as Sites of Community Importance. The Commission has adopted 439 Irish Special Area of Conservation sites as Sites of Community Importance. Following the adoption of sites as Sites of Community Importance, that process is then completed with the signing of a Statutory Instrument in respect of each site.

Statutory Instruments have been signed, to date, in respect of 276 Special Areas of Conservation. These Statutory Instrument may be viewed at .

Each Statutory Instrument sets out the Qualifying Interests of the site, i.e. the species and/or habitats for which the site is protected and the activities requiring consent by the relevant public authority. Once a site has been formally underpinned by Statutory Instrument, landowners are notified of the designation. Advertisements relating to the designation are placed in local and/or national newspapers and are broadcast on local and/or national radio.

Special Area of Conservation sites are legally protected under the European Communities (Birds and Natural Habitats) Regulations 2011 from the time that they are publicly proposed. All 439 Special Area of Conservation sites are so protected.

My Department is responsible for the implementation of a range of legislation and policy relating to biodiversity and nature in Ireland and is the lead authority for the National Biodiversity Action Plan. The current National Biodiversity Action Plan, Ireland’s 3rd, runs from 2017 to 2021 and captures the objectives, targets and actions for biodiversity to be undertaken by a wide range of government, civil society and private sectors to achieve Ireland’s Vision for Biodiversity. The Plan is an all-of-Government document and progress is monitored through the Biodiversity Working Group, which meets at least twice a year, and also by an independent advisory group, the Biodiversity Forum.

An interim review of the Plan was published in February and may be viewed at .

The findings of this review will, along with the outcomes of the discussions around a new post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, inform the development of Ireland’s next National Biodiversity Action Plan.

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