The actions permissible under a prospecting licence, PL, are in general non-invasive and of minimum environmental impact. It is a condition of each PL that any drilling or trenching should not take place without prior consultation with and notice to my Department to ensure environmental compatibility and observance of precautions. Candidate areas for SAC or SPA status have the same legal status as designated areas in this process.
In assessing an application for a PL it is practice to ascertain what, if any, restrictions arise from the designated or proposed environmental or heritage status of the subject lands. These are notified to the recipient of the PL and compliance with them is a condition of the PL.
In this case inquiries were made of Dúchas in addition to checking our records of earlier contacts with it to get a clear picture of what activities might be subject to restriction or partial restriction. Having established that exploration in these areas of Connemara was viable and that the applicant was suitable, I issued notice of my intention to grant the PLs to allow for other matters to be brought to my attention by members of the public. Having reviewed the objections submitted, I will come to a decision on whether to issue the licences.
