Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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My Department, in close collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and with the Nitrates Expert Group have undertaken an interim review of the Fifth Nitrates Action Programme and have developed a suite of proposed additional measures that also fulfil the requirements of the Commission’s Implementing Decision on the Nitrates Derogation.

All proposed measures were screened to determine if an Appropriate Assessment (AA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) must be undertaken. This screening assessment of the draft measures identified that both assessments are legally required. As such the following steps are required in advance of the proposed additional measures from the Interim Review being published:

1. A full NIS under the Habitats Directive and a SEA will be drafted.

2. The draft NIS will be submitted for an AA Determination by the Ecological Assessment Unit (EAU) of National Parks and Wildlife Services.

3. A 30 (calendar) day public consultation of the proposed measures, the draft NIS and SEA will then be undertaken. This consultation is legally required a part of the AA determination process and the SEA process.

4. Consultation responses will be collated and inform the final measures.

Once completed, I will be in a position to finalise the measures and sign the amended GAP regulations. This is likely to be in the summer, subject to no delays in the above timeline.