Stage 1: screening
The planning authority (the council or An Coimisiún Pleanála) decides whether the project, alone or together with other plans and projects, is likely to have a significant effect on any European site. Applicants usually submit an AA screening report prepared by an ecologist to inform this.
At screening, measures designed to avoid or reduce harm to the European site can't be taken into account. If the project relies on them, it goes to Stage 2.
Stage 2: Appropriate Assessment and the NIS
If significant effects can't be excluded, the applicant prepares a Natura Impact Statement assessing the effects on the site's conservation objectives and the measures to avoid harm. The authority then carries out the Appropriate Assessment, and can only grant permission if it's certain the project won't adversely affect the integrity of the European site.
Source, pathway, receptor
Screening looks for a chain from the project to the European site:
- Source: what the project could release or change, such as wastewater, silt, noise, lighting or loss of habitat.
- Pathway: how that could reach the site, through a river or drain, groundwater, the air, or birds that use the land.
- Receptor: the habitats and species the European site is designated for.
So a house several kilometres upstream of an SAC river, with a treatment system draining to a tributary, can need screening, while one closer but with no connection may not.
Common triggers for a one-off house
- A wastewater treatment system near a stream that flows into an SAC, especially rivers with freshwater pearl mussel.
- Construction run-off into such a stream.
- Land used by SPA birds, such as wintering geese or swans.
Sources
- EU Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), Article 6(3)
- Planning and Development Act 2000, Part XAB
- National Parks and Wildlife Service, npws.ie, for each site's conservation objectives
Last reviewed 2026-10-02.