The meeting referred to by the Deputy was the Atlantic Region Biogeographic Seminar held at Kilkee in early September. I am aware of the comments and I hosted a dinner for the participants. The outcome of the meeting was not unexpected as my Department has yet to transmit a full list of Irish sites to the EU Commission.
The position is that to date I have transmitted a total of 145 SAC sites to the European Commission and I will be transmitting more when a number of appeals against further designations are resolved. My experts who attended the meeting freely conceded that more sites need to be transmitted and this will be done. I reject any suggestion that serious concerns were raised. It would be more correct to say that I and my Department brought the matter to the attention of the EU last March and set out a programme of work to ensure that our obligations are met. I was joined in this, obviously, by the Minister of State.
The Commission and I believe that the successful establishment of the Natura 2000 Network is dependent on the active co-operation of landowners and land users. I, therefore, do not propose to transmit a site to the Commission until the appeals outstanding on it are completed.