Guidance Note on Public Participation in Strategic Environmental Assessment

This Guidance Note aims to improve how the general public is engaged in Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) practice in Ireland. It sets principles
and makes recommendations to ensure that the public
is meaningfully informed and consulted during SEA
processes, and any feedback is appropriately integrated
into the SEA Environmental Report and the associated
plan/programme (referred to as ‘plan’ hereon for
simplicity). The Guidance Note is based on a review of
international best practice; extensive consultation with
SEA practitioners, plan-makers and public participation
experts; and lessons learned from a good practice case
study piloting novel approaches to public engagement in
the SEA consultation. As such, these recommendations
are transferable to other jurisdictions.