Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

820.To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 668 of 20 March 2024, for an update on the 2023 Interim Review of the State’s current nitrates action programme; the timeline for publication of the review; if he has signed the amended GAP regulations to date; if not, when he expects to sign them; and if he will make a statement on the matter.[34697/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

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 underway or planned in advance of the proposed additional measures being published:

1. A full draft Natura Impact Statement (NIS) under the Habitats Directive and a draft SEA is almost completed.
2. The draft NIS will be submitted for an AA Determination by the Ecological Assessment Unit (EAU) of National Parks and Wildlife Services.
3. A30 (calendar) daypublic 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.