IRELAND HAS YET to take action to protect at least 40 sensitive nature habitats, despite an imminent decision in the European Court of Justice case taken by the European Commission in which the Government has been accused of infringing environmental law.

An analysis of a list of sites released to environmental campaigners shows that several dozen sites have still not been designated in legislation as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC), which are places recognised as sensitive habitats that support flora and fauna.

While a large amount of sites have been registered to date – some 250 in the past two years – high-profile sites yet to be added include Killarney National Park and parts of the Burren.

The area of conservation of SACs falls under the governance of the Department of Housing, Heritage and Local Government. It told The Journal it hopes to add those sites by the end of this year.

Environmental campaigners have recently pointed to another part of the case taken by the European Commission, which alleges that Ireland has also failed to design credible conservation objectives for a multitude of its sites.

Speaking to The Journal, the Irish Wildlife Trust said some of the areas are the country’s “jewels in the crown” but had received little in the way of credible plans or investment to ensure they could be protected for future generations.

In 2020, the European Commission began legal proceedings against the State, accusing the Government of infringing its obligations under the Habitats Directive to protect natural habitats and by failing to establish necessary measures to ensure conservation. A decision is expected in the coming months. 

As previously reported by The Journal’s investigative platform Noteworthy, the infringement proceedings allege that Ireland did not designate 217 ‘Sites of Community Interest’ (SCIs) as SACs within a strict six-year time period. 

It also claims that Ireland “generally and persistently failed to comply” with environmental law by establishing conservation measures that “are not sufficiently precise and detailed and fail to address all significant pressures and threats”.

The Habitats Directive, adopted in 1992, is an EU directive to protect over a thousand species across the trading area. 

Fred Logue, a solicitor with the information campaign group Right to Know, which received the list of sites, said that ensuring the legal designation is the “starting point for legal protection” for SACs.

“Everything else builds on that. If you don’t have the right foundations for legal protection, then everything you build on top of that, like the permitting procedures and monitoring, just can’t be effective,” he said. 

He also criticised the Government for the length of time it is taking the State to fall in line with EU rules.

“It’s very dissatisfactory that the Commission is still trying to force Ireland to comply with it the directive.” 

Since the Commission took its case, approximately 200 sites have been added to statute books to designate them as areas of importance. There are a total of 441 SACs -  40 of these are yet to be added to the statute books.

Generic objectives

However, environmental campaigners have also pointed to another part of the EU’s case, which alleges that Ireland has also failed to design credible conservation objectives for each of its sites.  

Padraig Fogarty, from the Irish Wildlife Trust, said that any conservation plan requires budgets and staff to ensure its objectives can be met. 

Fogarty said the conservation plans suffer from generic objectives and that, in some cases, the surveys upon which the objectives are based are over a decade old.

“The problem is the lack of any kind of management or conservation measures. I mean, Killarney National Park is a case in point as it’s probably our most important biodiversity in the country, and it’s being destroyed,” he said.

“This is the jewel in the crown of the Irish national park nature reserve programme but it has two big problems,” he said, noting that the park suffers from overgrazing due to deer, sheep and goats, and from an abundance of invasive species such as rhododendron.

Blaze in 2021

Fogarty added that given the serious fire which “decimated” the national park two years ago, the need for a plan was all the more pressing.

The blaze destroyed thousands of acres of the park in April 2021 before it was eventually extinguished. 

“It can’t be just trying to resuscitate the forest but trying to expand it, and we’re not seeing that,” Fogarty added.”

Fogarty argued that Minister of State Malcolm Noonan “inherited a trainwreck” and that some good work has been done in terms of organisation of the area, but that the country needs to now “start seeing visible results” and prevent the further “deterioration” of sensitive habitats.

“But this is not an insurmountable challenge for the State. It requires people to take it seriously and ultimately nature has not been seen as a serious issue by politicians. This needs investment, staffing and long-term plans, and should not been seen as an anti-rural measure.”

Department response

When contacted for comment, the department said that it published a Strategic Action Plan for the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) last year, which it said is currently being implemented.

“This will equip the NPWS with the organisational capability and supporting structures to enable it to deliver its mandate in protecting our natural heritage,” it said.  

The Department declined to provide details of staffing, citing “reasons of operational security” relating to the enforcement roles carried out by NPWS staff. 

It added that it is hoping to recruit 50 extra conservation rangers, boosting the number from 70 to 120. A recruitment competition for rangers is at an advanced stage with candidates currently being appointed, the department said. 

“Both Minister of State Noonan and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien TD, have asked the Department to accelerate appointments from this panel and the Department is also currently engaged with the Public Appointments Service to run a further Conservation Ranger competition later this year in order to reach this target of 120 Conservation Rangers within NPWS. “ 

The department added that budgets for maintaining SACs are set at regional level rather than by the department.