Bernard Allen
Ceist:182 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government his views on a national landscape policy. [20898/02]
Written Answers. - Environmental Policy.
The Planning and Development Act, 2000, grants additional powers to planning authorities to preserve valuable landscapes through the development plan. Objectives to preserve the character of the landscape must be included in the development plan, where the planning authority believes that it is necessary for the proper planning and sustainable development of the area. The objectives in the development plan may also preserve views and prospects or the amenities of places or features of natural beauty. The 2000 Act also enables planning authorities to designate special landscapes as "landscape conservation areas." Additional restrictions on types of development that are normally exempt will apply in these areas. My Department has also issued a draft of guidelines for planning authorities on landscape and landscape assessment for public consultation in June 2000. The responses received during this consultation process are being considered by my Department and it is intended that final guidelines will issue in the near future.
Ireland signed and ratified the Council of Europe's European Landscape Convention on 22 March, 2002. The general purpose of the convention is to encourage public authorities to adopt policies and measures at local, regional, national and international level for protecting, managing and planning landscapes throughout Europe so as to maintain and improve landscape quality and bring the public, institutions and local and regional authorities to recognise the value and importance of landscape and to take part in related public decisions.
Bernard Allen
Ceist:183 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if he proposes to change the planning laws in order to ensure that environmental impact studies are no longer funded by consultants hired by the planning applicants but instead a contribution would be made to the local authority in order that an independent environmental study would be carried out where required. [20899/02]
The Planning and Development Regulations, 2001, set out detailed requirements on the information to be included in an environmental impact statement, EIS. These regulations are based on the requirement of EU Directive 85/337/EEC, as amended, that the developer should supply such information to the consent authority. The role of the planning authority is to carry out an assessment of the EIS as supplied in this way by the developer. The planning authority, whether at local authority level or on appeal to An Bord Pleanálá, is required to consider the adequacy of an EIS; and where the authority decides that the EIS is inadequate to require the EIS to be supplemented by further information.