Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 November 2018
682. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the number of times the European Commission has approached her Department seeking further designations of special protection areas and special areas of conservation; her response in relation to these requests; the reason for each response; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48010/18]
View answerThe Irish list of Special Areas of Conservation was reviewed in detail by the European Commission and Member States in 1999, 2002 and 2003 and on each of those occasions the Commission required additional designations of sites or refinements of the designations. A further process of examination of the marine Special Areas of Conservation was carried out in 2009 and 2016. Ireland is now considered sufficient in almost all respects although there is a "scientific reserve" on sufficiency of marine sites for reef habitat and for the bottle-nosed dolphin.
In 2007, the European Court of Justice in case C-418/04 ruled that Ireland was required to designate additional Special Protection Areas, under the EU Birds Directive. This process is largely complete for land and freshwater sites, although there are still some landowner appeals under consideration in a small number of sites.
Ireland is still required by the European Commission to complete an analysis of the requirements (if any) to designate Special Protection Areas in Ireland’s marine territory. Data collection on seabird distribution has been carried out in the past 3 years and this data will be reviewed in 2019 to determine if there are marine areas which meet the criteria for such designation.
