SPA could destroy marine industry

PLANS for marine-related industries along the Shannon Estuary will be washed away if Heritage Minister Jimmy Deenihan proceeds with plans to designate the estuary as a Special Protection Area (SPA) for wild birds, a local deputy has claimed.

Deputy Pat Breen has called for an urgent meeting of all Oireachtas members in Clare, Limerick and Kerry to discuss the implications of designating the Shannon Estuary as SPA. He claimed if this designation goes ahead, it could stifle the development of wind energy and other marine-related industries along the estuary.
“I have been in discussions with a number of industrialists who have plans to develop along the estuary and have jobs in the pipeline and they have warned me that they want an end to red tape, not the creation of more of it.
“If this plan is not delayed or altered, as well as delaying projects which are already in the pipeline, it could have serious implications for future development along the Shannon Estuary,” he said.
Deputy Breen hopes to secure an agreed approach from all the deputies in the area to put forward to Deputy Deenihan.
His call is being supported by Limerick-based writer Brian J Goggin, who is researching the industrial heritage of the region.
“The Shannon Estuary is an extraordinarily rich industrial heritage zone, where people have used both the water and the land for hundreds of years. Embankment of the creeks reclaimed land and it also allowed the creeks to be used to carry fertiliser (sand, seaweed and limestone) and to carry its produce out to market,” said Mr Goggin, who lives in Castleconnell.
“Turf, extracted from Poulnasherry and elsewhere, was carried by boat from the western end of the estuary to Limerick, Bunratty and other places at the eastern end.”
He pointed to the rich transport and engineering heritage, the embankments, the nineteenth century piers, forts and lighthouses along the estuary and the docks and mills in Limerick City.
“Later, the Shannon saw innovation in rail, the North Kerry line, the West Clare line and the Lartigue monorail. In the twentieth century, the flying-boat base at Foynes and the airport at Rineanna (Shannon) were vital to transatlantic air travel. The region also has important sites associated with fuel and energy, from the bogs at Poulnasherry to hydroelectricity at Ardnacrusha, coal- and oil-fired power stations at Moneypoint and Tarbert and modern wind-turbines in many places.
“We should be investigating the tourism potential of this industrial heritage zone,” Mr Goggin said adding that “It doesn’t need much by way of new investment because there are so many sites already there. But the Special Protection Area could stop any development of the zone.”
The brief from the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht explains that several types of work in an SPA require ministerial consent. They include “developing or allowing the development or operation of recreational/visitor facilities or activities, at a commercial scale”.
Mr Goggin continued, “The problem is that the only people who can object to designation of an SPA are landowners and they can do so only on scientific grounds. Anyone like me who isn’t a landowner won’t be heard. There seems to be no system for weighing up the interests of bird conservation against others like tourism or economic development; the entire appeals process seems to be within the department.
“I’m not against protecting birds but this system seems to be unfair and to rule out any broad-based evaluation of the costs and benefits. No single interest should have that sort of veto power. The designation should be delayed until the system is reformed.”
Efforts by The Clare Champion to secure a response from Minister Deenihan proved unsuccessful at the time of going to print.