Vol. 472 No. 6
83 Mr. N. Treacy asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht if he will ensure that land owned by farmers, which is proposed to be designated under the national heritage areas programme as special areas of conservation, is excluded where there is a need to drain this land in order to alleviate flooding from agricultural land, agricultural yards and private houses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23768/96]
As the Deputy is aware, special areas of conservation, SACs, are required to be established under the terms of the EU Habitats Directive, 92/43/EEC. The directive specifies the scientific criteria on which sites must be selected. Objections of the inclusion of a site may only be considered if they are scientifically based. Accordingly, it is not open to me to agree to exclude agricultural lands requiring drainage from these sites.
The Habitats Directive requires that SACs be protected from any significant damage unavoidably that will in some cases lead to drainage works being prohibited, since some of these sites derive their ecological importance from their "wetland" status. However, the position is more complex than this. The directive categorises SACs into those containing priority habitats, which are defined in the directive, and those without such a habitat.
For SAC sites which do not contain a priority habitat I may permit an activity or development to proceed, even where it may produce a significant adverse effect on a site, if "imperative reasons of overriding public interest, including those of a social or economic nature" are at issue. This would be subject to appropriate compensatory measures being introduced to ensure the overall quality and size of SAC sites are not reduced and must have the prior agreement of the EU Commission.
The directive specifies that where a site "hosts a priority natural habitat, type and-or a priority species, the only considerations which may be raised are those relating to human health or public safety, to beneficial consequences of primary importance for the environment or, further to an opinion from the Commission, to other imperative reasons of overriding public interest".
