Vol. 508 No. 5
34 Mr. McDowell asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands the action, if any, she has taken or intends to take arising from the warning issued by the EU Commission in July 1999 that it may not be able to approve any Irish Structural or Cohesion Funding projects in 2000 until Ireland complies with key wildlife conservation obligations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19133/99]
Dúchas, the Heritage Service of my Department, has set out a programme for transmitting special areas of conservation – SACs – required under the EU Habitats Directive 92/43/EEC, to the EU Commission. This programme will ensure that all terrestrial sites are transmitted to the Commission by the end of this year and that marine sites are transmitted by the end of April 2000.
The current position is that Dúchas has formally transmitted 145 sites, mainly priority habitat type sites, to the Commission; an additional 52 sites are under appeal and will be formally transmitted as soon as all objections, relating to privately owned lands included in the sites, have completed the appeals process.
