EIA and Content of the Environmental Statement
The environmental impact assessment (EIA) is defined as “a process which identifies the environmental effects (both negative and positive) of development proposals”. The findings of the EIA process are reported in an Environmental Statement (ES) which accompanies the application for consent and enables the statutory bodies to make a qualified judgement on the impacts and acceptability of the project

The broad scope of the EIA and content of ES is defined under Annex IV of the codified EIA Directive 2011/92/EU. These stipulate that the Environmental Statement includes at least a

(i.)     description of the development comprising information on the site, design and size of development;
(ii.)     the main alternatives studied by the applicant and the main reasons for his choice, taking into account the environmental effects;
(iii.)    description of the aspects of the environment likely to be significantly affected by the development
(iv.)    description of the likely significant effects of the development on the environment
(v.)     description of the methods used to assess the effects on the environment
(vi.)    description of the measures envisaged to prevent, reduce and where possible remedy significant adverse effects (mitigation measures);
(vii)    a non-technical summary of the information provided under (i) to (vi) above.
(viii)   indication of any difficulties encountered by the developer in compiling the required information
The Environmental Statement has been structured in accordance with these requirements and has been sub-divided into the following topic categories.