Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This Commencement matter was intended for the Minister of State with responsibility for heritage and electoral reform, Deputy Noonan. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, for being here. I ask him to provide an update from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, on the conservation status of 45 special areas of conservation, SAC, Irish turloughs and objectives to restore habitats and protect the local community in the Lough Funshinagh area.

There were hundreds of people at a public meeting in Lecarrow, County Roscommon, last night. They were there to talk about the severe flooding and loss of homes, farms and access at Lough Funshinagh. There were families young and old, farmers and residents of Ballagh, Rahara, Lisfelim and Ardmullen. They came out to support action and to find solutions and a way forward. I thank the organisers for bringing people and public representatives together and giving a presentation on events since 2016.

Lough Funshinagh, the lake of the ash tree, is classified as a turlough and designated a SAC. However, it has not drained in 26 years, with the last time it did being in 1996. In 1997, it was designated a SAC. It is an area of beauty but is now one of devastation too. In 2016, the lake doubled its surface area. It forced families from homes. Acres of farmland were lost. This disappearing lake does not disappear. Instead the waters rise year on year. People are in distress. There is pure mental anguish and people just wait to see when the next flood will be.

The impact on wildlife and vegetation is clear for all to see, with trees standing as white sculptures within the lake. They have no leaves and are all dead and rotting away. High floods and waves from the lake in the wintertime wash away the vegetation and all the soil to leave only stones. Land is crumbling away and the SAC itself has been listed with the poor condition status. An urgent engineering solution by Roscommon County Council and the Office of Public Works, OPW, was halted in the courts and yes, environmental assessments are required.

I understand a turlough, listed as code 3180, is an annex I habitat and there are 75 designated turloughs in the Natura 2000 network. Most, if not all of them are in the west, across Roscommon, Galway, Mayo and Clare. I understand the west of Ireland contains close to all of the Irish SACs, that is 45, or 60%, of all listed turloughs, according to the Natura 2000 network. Therefore, Ireland can, as a member state, take a lead in how we manage and bring our turloughs back to a favourable condition and how we work with vital farming communities in that region. Along with the habitats directive we have the floods directive and the water directive. The objective of the floods directive is to establish a framework for the assessment and management of flood risks, and to reduce the negative consequences of flooding on human health, economic activities, the environment and cultural heritage in the EU.

I thank some Irish researchers for their paper entitled "Groundwater flood hazards and mechanisms in lowland karst terrains". That is what we have in the west; it is a karst limestone landscape. It can be seen that "... backwater flooding of sinks, high water levels in ... flooded basins (turloughs), overtopping of depressions, and discharges from springs and resurgences" lead to flooding, especially in karst areas. How then are we going to protect our cultural heritage in the west of Ireland, where we have the majority of turloughs for the whole of the EU and also manage the flooding to ensure we are also protecting those communities?

Positive farming practices such as grazing turloughs are crucial. They assist in the maintenance of these turloughs. Last night we heard of studies on the lough. We have the floods directive to protect people and the habitats directive to protect habitats, species and wildlife, yet there is rotting vegetation, trees in the lake, the growth of algae and probably no oxygen. Whether fish are dying or not we do not know. We have the birds directive and the soil has washed away, as have the food plants and vegetation that is one of the qualifying criteria. There is anecdotal evidence the whooper swans are not there and neither are the curlews. There is the water directive and yet our rivers do not meet the criteria.

How do we work together with Departments, the NPWS and the OPW? How do we ensure the qualifying criteria and conservation objectives for Lough Funshinagh? How do we update designations for the SAC? What is the active management plan? What is the timeline for this type of review? How do we fund and increase the expertise level so local authorities in the west can have ecologists and hydrologists, as we are supposed to be the ones maintaining this environment for the whole of the EU? How can Ireland take a lead at the EU level within the Directorate-General for the Environment?The birds have flown away, the trees are dead and we are left with families in despair. We have to find a way forward.