Special Areas of Conservation.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 February 2007

Tuesday, 27 February 2007

Questions (469)

Jim O'Keeffe

Question:

529 Mr. J. O’Keeffe asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the situation regarding the proposal to designate lands as special areas of conservation. [7227/07]

Written answers

Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Mr. Roche)

To date, Ireland has identified over 423 special areas of conservation covering some 1,350,000 hectares, of which slightly less than half is marine. The final main tranche of designations of candidate Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) relate to salmon rivers, in respect of which, 17,500 landowners were notified in December last. I intend that the designation of these final areas will be completed as urgently as possible.