To: Department of Environment, Community and Local Government

Dear Sir/Madam,

An Taisce attaches the following brief document as its submission to this Public Consultation. Our fully referenced Submission regarding the Draft NMP is available here.

We ask the Department and other readers to give full consideration to this contribution. In it we briefly outline reasons why the Scoping Report is too narrowly focused to provide an environmental assessment that respects the physical reality and environmental risks due to climate change. A much wider SEA is required for climate change plans and programmes, as is clearly called for in the European Commission document Guidance on Integrating Climate Change and Biodiversity into Strategic Environmental Assessment.

Please note that the none of the Report’s questions for respondents are numbered, making cross referencing of questions and answers difficult for any future Consultation follow-up. We urge the Department to ensure that pdfs for Consultation are more user-friendly in future.

As per Article 6 of the SEA Directive, can the Department make known to An Taisce any further consultation planned regarding the making of this policy and issue An Taisce with notification of any proposed amendments in good time for a response.

An Taisce Climate Change Committee

Download the submission here.