Mr. Eamonn Hore:

Lady's Island Lake or Loch Tóchair is an important natural heritage site on the south Wexford coast. Tóchair is the Gaelic word for causeway. The site is protected by two overlapping areas, including a special protection area, SPA, which was designated in 2010 for terns and several species of water birds, and a special area of conservation, SAC, designated in 2018 for habitats, including coastal lagoons, reefs and vegetated shingle.

Lady’s Island Lake is one of the largest lagoons in Ireland measuring 340 ha or 840 acres. Under the water framework directive, Lady’s Island Lake lies within the Ballyteigue–Burrow catchment and the Kisha 010 sub-basin. The Kisha 010 sub-basin is approximately 7,339 acres, with approximately 4,734 acres draining into Lady’s Island via 12 feeder streams and other sub-drainage systems.

No conversation about Lady’s Island Lake would be complete without mentioning Our Lady’s Island, one of the most ancient shrines to Our Lady and one of the oldest pilgrimages in Ireland. Although there is no record of Our Lady’s pilgrimage until the coming of the Normans, a tradition has always existed in the Barony of Forth that it was a place of pilgrimage from the earliest days of Christianity in south Wexford. The two most challenging management issues currently impacting on Lady’s Island Lake are improving water quality and controlling the water level of the lake. Water quality in Lady’s Island Lake has been poor since at least the early 1980s, over 40 years ago. The most recent research report on the status of Lady’s Island Lake, published by the EPA, prepared by Aquafact and cofunded by the NPWS, confirms the long-understood reality that the lagoon and its feeder streams are badly polluted. Agriculture is clearly the main pressure with large inputs of nutrient, namely, nitrogen and phosphorus run-off from land, causing severe pollution and damage to the ecology of Lady’s Island Lake. The CLEAR project, which brought the subject report to publication in January this year, has outlined that a five-to-seven-fold reduction in nitrogen and phosphorus inputs to Lady’s Island Lake will be necessary to return the lagoon to its earlier condition.

Wexford County Council welcomes this report as it further highlights the creeping deterioration of the lake’s water quality over the past 40 years, confirms that the main issue is with current agricultural practices and points to a considered way forward in an effort to reverse the lake’s poor water quality status. Agriculture within the sub-basin draining to Lady’s Island Lake consists of 72 farms. There are 13 farms where their primary enterprise is tillage, 16 farms where their primary enterprise is dairy, 24 farms where their primary enterprise is beef, six farms where their primary enterprise is sheep, and the remaining 13 farms are equine related or specialise in hay and silage for sale. Only seven farms in derogation are stocked above 170 kg organic N/ha. Of the above farms, there are approximately 56 farms draining to Lady’s Island Lake. The catchment is known for its early potatoes, including the famous Carne potatoes known right across Ireland, and varieties such as Homeguard, Premier and British Queens. That is almost ironic if we remember An Gorta Mór. The agricultural practices problem clearly outlined in the EPA report and as evidenced over many years is not the fault of the farmers involved, all of whom are operating substantially within the rules and advice for application of nutrients as per the Department of agriculture controls.

Since 2018, Wexford County Council has conducted 30 farm inspections under planning application requirements and good agricultural practices audits and through environment complaints. A further 90 inspections of septic tanks were conducted under the national inspection plan between 2018 and 2022, of which 63 failed the inspection. There were 21 systems found to directly discharging to surface waters in the catchment area. Six septic tank failure cases remain open and are being actioned by Wexford County Council.

As to solutions, the EPA CLEAR report suggests a series of remedial techniques that Wexford County Council agrees with, including the fencing of watercourses, provision of water troughs, buffer zones to drainage outlets, hedgerow planting, native woodland planting, elimination of cattle drinking points, sediment traps, settlement ponds, riparian zones, arable grass margins, soil sampling and nutrient management plans. We would also include in that additional advice for farmers on their specific enterprises, farmyard design, land topography and land use. Wexford County Council is suggesting a European Innovation Partnership scheme or similar national scheme to be cofunded or funded directly by the Department. The Duncannon EIP scheme, which has delivered measurable success within the Duncannon drainage catchment area, is included in the appendices. The Duncannon EIP scheme was commenced in 2018 and finalised in 2023 as a voluntary scheme that addressed the sources of pollution and went above and beyond the nitrates directive, whereby individual farmers were paid grant amounts for works carried out - examples of the works are set out in the document - and were also paid on an annual reward basis contingent on specific outcomes. Regarding the costs involved, an EIP scheme similar to that in Duncannon would cost in the region of €2.25 million. I have looked at cost for the level control that is also an issue and the most recent costs show that it could be between €3 million and €3.6 million.

We welcome the recent focus on the pollution of Lady’s Island Lake and the invitation to address and interact with the joint committee. We sincerely hope that this recent focus will lead to a practical and workable solution. It will take the expertise of the various environmental and agricultural bodies working together to solve the problem and, of course, adequate funding. Wexford County Council is happy to lead on such a solution.