Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 February 2019
231. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the number of sites in County Cork being considered for special area of conservation, SAC, status; the level of protection these sites will have while they are under consideration; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7211/19]
View answerFrom 1997, the intention to designate 439 special areas of conservation has been publicly advertised. Legal protection has applied to these sites from the time they were initially proposed for designation.
30 sites selected for designation as special areas of conservation lie within the Cork county boundary. Of these, 12 sites have been formally designated as special areas of conservation by the adoption of a Statutory Instrument for each site. The remaining sites are scheduled for formal designation within the special area of conservation designation programme, which is currently underway within my Department.
The National Raised Bog Special Areas of Conservation Management Plan 2017-2022 includes proposals to designate two new special areas of conservation, in order to compensate for permanent losses of active raised bog from the special area of conservation network. These sites are more than 50 per cent in State ownership.
Given the comprehensive network of protected sites already in place in Ireland in accordance with the EU Habitats Directive and a number of reviews of the sufficiency of the network of sites, I currently have no further plans to propose sites for designation as special areas of conservation.
