Mr. Colin Byrne:

Good afternoon. I am the senior water adviser representing the water division in the Department. I am joined by my colleague, Ms Deirdre Dunworth, assistant principal officer in the same division.

We welcome the opportunity to appear before the committee to discuss the issues raised in the petition regarding the weir at Fermoy. The Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government has policy responsibility for the implementation of the Water Framework Directive in Ireland. The directive is important environmental legislation that aims to protect and improve our natural waters in terms of water quality and the physical condition of water bodies. The directive applies to rivers, lakes, groundwater, estuaries and coastal waters and is implemented through the River Basin Management Plan for Ireland 2018-2021.

The challenges that must be overcome in order to achieve the directive's ambitious objectives are significant. To put them in content, there are almost 5,000 water bodies in Ireland, which generally must achieve what is considered to be good ecological status. Deterioration is not permitted. The plan has placed a major emphasis on establishing the right governance and delivery structures for an effective catchment-based approach. Clear priorities are set out in the river basin plan, which will ensure that all stakeholders are working together with a strong focus on delivering positive outcomes.

National authorities retain responsibility for the implementation of national programmes, with regional structures driving the implementation of prioritised supporting measures. Meaningful stakeholder and public engagement is being led by the recently established Water Forum, or An Fóram Uisce, and the local authority waters programme. The former facilitates public and stakeholder engagement in water policy at national level while the latter drives public engagement, participation and consultation with communities and stakeholders at local and regional levels. This engagement is further supported by various websites run by the EPA, including catchments.ie, the site watersandcommunities.ie, which is operated by local authorities, and by a wide range of other engagement activities.

While the Department has responsibility for leading the development of the river basin plan, it is important to point out that, much like the climate action plan, implementation depends on a large number of public and private bodies and individuals, all of which have their own responsibilities.

Regarding barriers on rivers, including weirs, the primary concern of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government is to ensure that they do not impede natural processes such as natural fish migration. Measures have been identified in the river basin plan to improve the assessment of river barriers that may be impacting on a range of migratory fish species. In this context, the Department has provided some funding to Inland Fisheries Ireland, IFI, to develop a national inventory of barriers to fish movements on rivers. According to the latest count, that could be in excess of 76,000. The IFI research will inform a prioritised programme to improve fish movement over barriers in the next river basin planning cycle, which will operate between 2022 and 2027. The funding of such a programme would need to be considered across various Departments in the context of the next plan, on which we are starting preparations now.

While our Department is supporting research on the barriers to fish migration, it does not have a direct role in the construction or removal of same. In view of the strategic importance of this project to Cork County Council, however, the Minister is prepared to make a contribution in support of the initial consultancy element, which is considering a solution, as mentioned by the county council earlier, and on the basis that the appropriate body provides substantive funding in the longer term. The Department is engaging with the county council in that regard. These communications were also referred to earlier.

The Department's primary concern is to ensure that any work carried out on the weir takes full account of the objectives set out in the river basin plan. This includes ensuring that modifications to weirs, such as that at Fermoy, do not negatively affect natural fish migration and will preferably improve it where considered necessary.

I thank members for their attention. We are happy to answer whatever questions they may have.