Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 24 March 2021
2021. Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the details of the decision of his Department to increase the buffer zone radius from 3 km to 15 km for all forestry projects; the authority that advised this increase; when his Department received this instruction; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15421/21]
View answerThe Habitats Directive and the transposing legislation SI 477 of 2011 require, inter alia, that an appropriate assessment is undertaken where screening identifies a likelihood of the project having a significant effect on a European site(s). This is true regardless of the separation distance between the project and the European site(s).
A likely zone of impact is used in order to identify those European Sites to be specifically addressed during screening. In making a decision regarding the likelihood of a project having a significant effect on a European Site(s), all European Sites within a certain radius (or ‘likely zone of impact’) should be considered at screening stage, in addition to hydrologically-connected European Sites. For example, in relation to a Special Protection Area, it is important to consider whether the project area lies within the foraging distance of bird species for which that SPA was designated, and many of these foraging distances exceed 3km.
This was one of the reasons why 3km was not deemed appropriate. Prior to the change in mid-2019, Ecology consultants, MKO, who were engaged by the Department to carry out appropriate assessment training at the time, deemed that our appropriate assessment screening decisions would be vulnerable to challenge if we continued to consider at screening stage only those European Sites within 3km.
Results on individual cases heard by the Forestry Appeals Committee also indicate that the 3km radius was not appropriate. The Department was advised that a radius of 15km, which had its origins in guidance provided by the National Parks & Wildlife Service, was the ‘industry-norm’ and that this distance would be more robust. This coupled with feedback from the FAC prompted the change from 3km to 15km
