Vol. 521 No. 4
224 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands the reason the Seabank, Arklow, County Wicklow has not been designated as a proposed special area of conservation given that it is the last remaining grey dune system with a high educational value for people in an area, which has already suffered extensive habitat loss. [17206/00]
Ireland continues to have a large number of intact grey dune areas and the best of these have been proposed for designation as SACs. The moderate conservation value of the dunes at Seabank was recognised by their proposal for designation as a natural heritage area, but they are not a sufficiently good example of a grey dune system to warrant designation as an SAC under the Habitats Directive.
