Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The European Union’s Habitats Directive requires Member States to designate sites as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) in order to create a coherent European ecological network. Roundstone Bog Commonage forms part of the Connemara Bog Complex SAC.

This SAC was proposed in August 1997, while the Statutory Instrument formally designating Connemara Bog Complex SAC was passed in November 2023 (SI 549 of 2023) specifying the exact boundaries of the SAC, listing the natural habitats and animal and plant species and listing activities with these boundaries that require the consent of the Minister (ARCs).

There are a range of activities requiring the consent of the Minister on this SAC, but these do not include grazing, cultivating crops or planting crops on established reseeded grassland or cultivated land. Landowners or occupiers should contact the local National Parks and Wildlife Service of my Department before undertaking any of the works listed at Schedule 4 of SI 549 of 2023.

I have, to date, received no applications for consent on this SAC.

Where such an application for the consent of the Minister has been made I may make a decision to refuse, modify, revoke or to give consent for the activity or give consent subject to conditions.

In circumstances, where the consent is not granted the applicant may be entitled to apply for compensation for the loss arising from a depreciation of the value of the land or an interest in the land the subject of the application for consent, subject to certain conditions.

In addition, farmers with a legal entitlement to a designated area are supported under the Basic Payment Scheme and Areas of Natural Constraint, which are administered by my colleague Charlie McConalogue, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.