Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Dolan for raising this matter. I will answer on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, to whom the NPWS reports.

Special areas of conservation, SACs, are prime wildlife conservation areas in the country that are considered to be important on a European level as well as an Irish level. The legal basis on which SACs are selected and designated is the EU habitats directive, which was transposed into Irish law by SI 477 of 2011, as amended.

Turloughs are semi-natural habitats that are virtually unique to Ireland. They generally flood in winter and dry out in summer, but there may be other sporadic rises in response to high rainfall. Turloughs are considered to be of high conservation value for their plant, invertebrate - both terrestrial and aquatic - and bird communities and are an annex I habitat.

Under Article 11 of the directive, each member state is obliged to undertake surveillance of the conservation status of the natural habitats and species in the annexes and, under Article 17, to report to the European Commission every six years on their status and the implementation of the measures taken under the directive. In April 2019, Ireland submitted the third assessment of conservation status for 59 habitats and 60 species. The overall status of the 45 sites designated for the annex I habitat turloughs, because of ongoing pressures related to drainage, groundwater pollution and ecologically unsuitable grazing, has been assessed as inadequate and stable.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service of the Department of the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, has published site-specific conservation objective documents for all the SACs that have been selected for the priority Annex I habitat turloughs, along with a supporting document called Conservation Objectives Supporting Document: Turloughs and Rivers with Muddy Banks with Chenopodion Rubri p.p. and Bidention p.p. Vegetation. That document is available on the NPWS website.

Lough Funshinagh was selected as a special area of conservation taking account of the more drawn out pattern of drainage than the typical annual rise and fall of other turlough lakes. The typical species of turloughs, including those found at Lough Funshinagh, are those that occur underwater as well as those typical of the water's edge. Lough Funshinagh SAC, however, is also selected for the EU habitats directive Annex I habitat rivers with muddy banks with chenopodion rubri p.p. and bidention p.p. vegetation.

Geological Survey Ireland, GSI, has been monitoring water levels on Lough Funshinagh since 2016 and has indicated that the levels are due to rainfall rather than blockage or change in the natural draining system. GSI has found that the rate of drainage during dry periods has been consistent and that the problem is that the drainage rate in general is unusually slow for a turlough of Lough Funshinagh's size. While most turloughs empty each summer, Lough Funshinagh is slow to drain, typically every four to five years. It is evident that Funshinagh does not get a chance to reset, as it is called, its flood pattern each year. As a consequence, Lough Funshinagh has not drained since before the 2016 flood. This issue has been further exacerbated by the heavy rainfall of recent years.

I assure the Senator the Government is acutely aware of the difficulties faced by landowners and householders in the local area in respect of the threat of flooding. However, a change to the designation of Lough Funshinagh SAC, or to any Natura 2000 site, is not a national policy decision in isolation but would require ratification by the Directorate General for Environment of the European Commission and would always be based on scientific grounds. The current advice from the National Parks and Wildlife Service is that there is not a compelling scientific case to go to the European Commission seeking to remove Lough Funshinagh from the SAC list.

Policy relating to flood risk management and its implementation are primarily the responsibility of the Office of Public Works and the local authority, which also have a role in ensuring adherence to EU nature legislation.