Vol. 472 No. 6
87 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht when he will grant special protection area status to Rogerstown Estauary, County Dublin, in view of the fact that an infringement proceeding against Ireland for failure to give the estuary special protection area designation under the terms of EU Council Directive 79/409/EEC on the protection of wild birds was opened by the European Commission some years ago. [23956/96]
An area of 195.5 hectares approximately of a Rogerstown Estuary was established as a nature reserve in April 1988 under section 15 of the Wildlife Act, 1976, by Statutory Instrument No. 71 of 1988. The designation of this site as a special protection area, SPA, under the Article 4 of Council Directive of 2 April 1979 on the conservation of wild birds, 79/409/EEC, known as the Birds Directives, was notified to the European Commission in October 1988.
The infringment proceeding referred to was a formal notification by the European Commission under Article 169 of the treaty and in relation to Rogerstown Estuary related to (a) the tiphead of Baleally and (b) the size of the SPA. In relation to (a) I am advised that Final County Council has engaged consultants to undertake the Baleally landfill study and the consultants have had discussions with officials of my Department on a number of occasions about this study. With regard to (b) my Department has informed the European Commission of its intention to review the boundaries of all SPAs, including the one at Rogerstown Estuary.
I understand that the European Commission has acknowledged the major progress made by this country in meeting the requirements of the Birds Directive, particularly in regard to the number of sites designated as SPAs, which now stands at 106 designated sites totalling 205,300 hectares. Consequently, the Commission is in the process of reviewing the Article 169 notification.
