Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 September 2023
236. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if environmental impact assessments thresholds have been reviewed before the implementation of the new Forestry Programme 2023-2027 in view that the current mandatory EIA thresholds can be extremely costly having resulted in the abandonment of potential native woodland planting applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40776/23]
View answerThe EIA Directive requires that certain classes of projects, including afforestation and forest road works, must be assessed to determine the likely environmental effect of the project, before a licence can be granted. The licensing system operated by my Department, the statutory framework for which is set out in Forestry Act 2014 and the Forestry Regulations 2017 (SI. No. 191 of 2017) (‘the Regulations’), provides for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to be carried out in certain cases.
An EIA is mandatory for afforestation project of 50 hectares in size or more, and for forest road works of 2,000 metres in length or more. Applications for such projects must be accompanied by an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIAR), to enable the undertaking of the requisite EIA. In addition, the Regulations provide that all proposed afforestation and forest road works below the mandatory thresholds must be screened for EIA, to consider whether or not significant effects on the environment are likely. Those mandatory thresholds are carried over from and in the first instance prescribed in Part 1 and Part 2 of Schedule 5 of the Planning and Developments Regulations 2001, as amended. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, in conjunction with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, has overarching responsibility for the implementation of the EIA Directive in spatial planning systems in Ireland. The current 50 hectares threshold was introduced into national law in 2001 by the Department of Environment and Local Government, in order to address a ruling of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) from September 1999 in Case C-392/96. As part of the process of transposing the most recent amendment to the EIA Directive (Directive 2014/52/EU) into the land use planning and EPA licencing systems, in May 2017, the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, prepared a “Key Issues Consultation Paper” and engaged in a stakeholder consultation. Amongst other matters considered as part of that process were the current thresholds at or above which projects of different classes are required to be made subject to a mandatory EIA and a determination was made at that juncture not to amend the thresholds. Furthermore, and perhaps most critically, the decision of the European Commission to approve the funding under State Aid rules of the new Forestry Programme 2023-2027, is predicated on the requirement that all afforestation projects involving an area of 50 hectares or more are required to be accompanied by an EIAR to enable my Department undertake an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
