Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is correct, yes. Maybe it is a controversial thing to say but we need to remove the protected status from certain sections so at least, on the meander of a river, a machine can do work without having to first go through a rigmarole of protection and the opposite side could be for bird nesting. That is how other countries seem to have got around this matter.