Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. At the outset, I wish to acknowledge the role of the officials within my Department. They have been extremely proactive and this has been in response to the genuine proactivity at a local level. Local councillors, Deputies and the local community's swift response on the clams issue in Lanesborough has been positive and has helped the process. Do my section and Department have statutory functions with regard to moving forward the whole issue of the invasive species? No, they do not. However, with that in mind, I wish to acknowledge the efforts of my officials because they have responded to my request to show leadership and to take responsibility in terms of leading on this, which has happened.

There was an agreement prior to Christmas. There have been EPA issues and there has been a lot of contact with Inland Waterways and the local authorities. There has been a whole mix of collaboration to try to get a pilot dredge and there was pressure on to do this before Christmas. We got agreement in principle before Christmas to do the dredge. The only thing holding this up at the moment is water levels. The advice is that to do it right the job should be done at lower water levels and we are following this advice. The pilot dredge has been agreed, but we are waiting on the water levels to move to a more satisfactory position in the interests of doing the job right rather than making a half-job of it.

To reiterate, my officials in Inland Fisheries have been very proactive on this. It is an example of community engagement. There is a sense of frustration at a local level. There are fears at a local level also, which were taken into account. Can these invasive clams be eradicated fully? The advice I have been given is that they cannot, but we need to focus on containment and ensure that we dispose of them in a proper way. We need to ensure that we do not have fishermen using boats and gear that might transfer the clams to other areas. These are good-practice issues. We are working with Inland Waterways on these and the use of smaller boats and containment.