Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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265. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the options available to a landowner whose land was designated as SAC without notification; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28032/24]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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Ireland, like all Member States, is bound by the requirements of the EU Habitats Directive.

When a site is first proposed for inclusion within a Special Area of Conservation (SAC), a public notice of the proposed designation is published in national and local newspapers and on the website of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) of my Department. Adverts are broadcast on radio and displayed in local Garda stations, local authority offices, public libraries, local offices of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, and offices of Teagasc.

In addition, landowners known to my Department are directly notified in writing of the proposed designation, and are sent a detailed information pack on the relevant site that includes information on how to object to the proposed designation.

A three-month period from the date of notification is provided for lodging an objection to the inclusion of land in a proposed SAC. Once the statutory period for lodging an objection has passed and any objections have been dealt with, the formal designation of the site is completed by the making of a Statutory Instrument.

The designation of SACs in Ireland is a statutory process and all such designations are publicly notified in this way. There are no instances where a public notification along the lines above was not undertaken for an SAC site.