Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 1 Jul 1999

Vol. 507 No. 4

Written Answers. - Special Areas of Conservation.

Joe Higgins

Ceist:

200 Mr. Higgins (Dublin West) asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands further to Parliamentary Question No. 8 of 3 June 1999, the way in which she can reconcile her statement that special areas of conservation have legal protection with the stated position of An Bord Pleanála that the obligation under Article 27 of the European Communities (Natural Habitats) Regulations to require assessment of proposed developments will only come into force when the European Commission selects the sites to be designated as SACs based on the list of sites which Ireland forwarded to the Commission in view of the fact we have not yet reached that stage. [17090/99]

Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands (Miss de Valera)

I believe that the European Communities (Natural Habitats) Regulations, 1997, (S.I. No. 94 of 1997), combined with more general EU and national provisions, provide a valid legal basis for ensuring protection for a site from the time it is first publicly proposed as an SAC. However, in order to remove any possible ambiguity in this context, I have proposed, in the Wildlife (Amendment) Bill which I have published today, an amendment to the regulations which will clearly provide, by means of an amendment to the definition of European Site, that protection for SACs applies in all instances from the time of notification of the proposed designation.