Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael)
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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.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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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.

Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael)
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From what I understand, then, the Geological Survey of Ireland, GSI, is stating Lough Funshinagh is still a turlough. Is that correct? From what I understand and from what the Minister of State has told me, he is stating that the last time Lough Funshinagh was cleared was in 2016, whereas Roscommon County Council has stated the last time it was fully drained was in 1996. In other words, Lough Funshinagh is not operating as turloughs normally would.

The Minister of State has stated that every six years an update is provided to the European Union, on the conservation objectives. When was the last update given to the European Union? All the sites in Ireland, from what I understand, are assessed as inadequate and stable. Does that mean they will continue as inadequate? As for the conservation objectives, I know that within the NPWS there has been funding for a conservation implementation section, which will look at the conservation measures.We need to know what the plan ahead is. Conservation measures need to be put in place or else we will lose the habitat that we want to protect in Lough Funshinagh. We cannot proceed unless we know, from the NPWS, the measures that will be put in place to protect the habitat, vegetation and all other qualifying criteria under the EU habitats directive annex I designation.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Geological Survey Ireland has stated that the problem at Lough Funshinagh is caused by rainfall and poor drainage, and that the recent problems were caused by increases in rainfall. I understand that there are strong feelings locally and I am aware the Senator attended a meeting with other representatives to which a large number of people turned out. I know as a politician that this is significant and means there is considerable concern about the issue. I will seek to arrange a meeting between the Senator and the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, to discuss this in order to find a way forward within the law. Naturally, we must abide by not just Irish law but European law regarding special areas of conservation. In whatever way we manage a balance between staying within the law, protecting the environment, as well as protecting the livelihood and lives of those who live around Lough Funshinagh, I will do whatever I can to help.

Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael)
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That would strike a balance.