114. Deputy John Paul Phelan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the specific measures in place to independently assess Ireland's compliance with Article 12 of the EU Birds Directive, including compliance with reporting requirements. [43376/24]

Article 12 of the Birds Directive (Directive 2009/147/EC) requires Member States to report “on the implementation of national provisions taken under this Directive”. The reporting requirements and format are specifically set out by the European Environment Agency and accepted by the EU Member States at each reporting interval, including detailed guidance documents on how exactly reporting templates must be completed. All of this information is available on the EIONET Portal (www.eionet.europa.eu/).

Ireland’s reporting under Article 12 of the Birds Directive is delivered by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) of my Department. The reports produced take into account data and information sourced from a variety of sources available at the time, including NPWS staff, NPWS projects, contractors working to NPWS, as well as published literature, including scientific articles, reports and other sources. All reports are reviewed and signed off by NPWS prior to submission. Reports are not accepted by the reporting portal if they do not meet the specified reporting requirements. In addition, an independent quality assurance process is undertaken by the EU Commission on all reports, data and spatial information the NPWS submit as part of Article 12 reporting. Ireland’s recent Article 12 reports have met the reporting requirements and thus have been accepted, and these are openly published and available online (e.g. see cdr.eionet.europa.eu/ie/eu/art12/envxztxxq).