Mr. Mark Horton:

The Rivers Trust agrees with everything Dr. Gallagher, Mr. O’Donnell and Professor Whelan have said. I will not rehearse it all. Our priority is to see barriers removed as opposed to mitigation. Of course, that might not always be the case so easements have to be considered carefully. The point has already been made about considering upstream and downstream migration and the fact that different fish species require different types of easement in order to do that. One solution will not fit all. One thing I would add to what others have said is that the in the context of the guidelines the ESB is producing, we would like to see the inclusion and valuing of local knowledge and the input of local groups who live in the areas around these structures in particular river catchments.

This is because often they will hold a lot of significant knowledge about the river historically. They will understand where there may be pockets of habitat that may not be that well known and where some of these genetic pools, which Dr. Gallagher was talking about, could well be residing. It is important to understand from the local community what they know about these river systems in order to inform their restoration. Certainly, the likes of river trusts, angling groups and biodiversity groups can also play a critical role in any habitat reparation work once a barrier has been overcome or eased, and there will be a requirement to do that. This has to be complemented with water quality improvement and habitat improvement to maximise the habitat quality for the fish that we then let up into the systems.

On the point about the OPW, there is a need to work not only with the OPW but with the likes of National Parks and Wildlife Service, the EPA, the local authority water programme and also all the State landowners and managers to make sure we maximise the resources that are available in order to realise these programmes of work to maximise the sharing of knowledge but also the positive impact that can be generated from these barrier removal or easement projects. Those achievements need to recognise not only environmental outcomes, but also outcomes for society and the economy as well.

As Professor Whelan said, we also need to always be cognisant of the unintended consequences of what we do. We do not want to make it easier, as Professor Whelan pointed out, for non-native or invasive species, or even diseases, to be easily transmitted through the river systems which we open up.