Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 21 Feb 1995

Vol. 449 No. 4

Adjournment Debate. - Killorglin (Kerry) Coastal Protection.

Mr. O'Donoghue

I congratulate the Minister of State on his appointment and wish him every success during his term of office.

I welcome the opportunity to outline to the House the very serious situation at Cromane, Killorglin, County Kerry where the sea embankment, which stretches for two and a half-three miles, is now under serious threat. There are several weak points in the embankment where high tides come on to land and unless action is taken in the very near future hundreds of acres of land will be lost to the sea. In excess of 30 small holdings now face the threat of complete elimination and it is obvious that people's homes will come under threat. There is a considerable degree of despair in the area about this ongoing problem. Since, I think, the Land Commission ceased maintaining the embankment approximately 20 years ago the problem has become progressively worse. Local people have done their best to try to maintain the embankment but this work is not sufficient and unless assistance is provided urgently the problem will deteriorate to the stage of no return.

I realise that the funding available to the Minister's Department is extremely limited. The sum of £5 million available under the Operational Programme 1994-99 is minuscule for an island nation. If the same amount of funding was given to Holland to protect land from the sea that country would very quickly become like the lost city of Atlantis.The time has come to give serious consideration to this problem. It is obvious that the funding provided to the Minister's Department to carry out this very urgent and essential work is inadequate. Apart from the area to which I have referred, there are many other places along the coastline which are also under threat from the sea. For example, Waterville in my constitutency is under threat and given the amount of funding available to the Department the prospect of funding being provided for this work is rather slim.

The problem at Cromane requires urgent attention given the threat posed to people's holdings and homes and to the mussel fishing industry which is based along its shoreline. I earnestly request the Minister to ensure, within the confines of the limited funding available to him, that work is carried out at this location within the coming year.

Minister of State at the Department of the Marine (Mr. Gilmore)

I thank Deputy O'Donoghue for his very good wishes. I understand his concern about the sea embankment at Cromane.

Primary responsibility for coastal protection lies with the property owner, whether that be a private individual or a coastal local authority. The role of the Department of the Marine is to work in conjunction with coastal local authorities on the overall management of the coastal zone. The Department has not received any proposals from Kerry County Council in relation to the sea embankment at Cromane. However, it has received proposals in relation to a number of other projects on the Kerry coastline.

As regards the funding of coast protection works, grants of up to 75 per cent may be made available from the Marine Vote subject to funds being available and the necessary 25 per cent being funded locally. Some £5.1 million has been provided in the National Development Plan 1994-99 to help address the erosion problem. This funding is being subvented for the first time by Structural Funding from the European Union. As Deputy O'Donoghue said, this level of funding is insufficient to address all the erosion problems around our coastline, and I will be making every effort to secure additional Exchequer resources for this purpose. That being said, the availability of some £5.1 million over the period to the end of 1999 is a great improvement on the £100,000 for capital works and £100,000 for maintenance works provided in recent years.

Given the limited funding available to the Department to assist local authorities in undertaking protection works, the Department discussed the matter with the City and County Managers' Association late last year. Arising from this meeting, each coastal local authority was requested to submit details of its top four priority protection proposals for consideration by the Department in the context of drawing up a programme of protection works to be undertaken between now and 1999.

The objective of this programme is the protection, through coastal protection works, of key coastal areas, especially those with significant economic infrastructure where, in the absence of such works, there would be a short to medium term risk of major damage. The prioritisation criteria to be utilised in the selection of projects will include: the economic cost, that is the lifetime costs of the works including maintenance, must be less than the loss that would otherwise be suffered over that period; the protection of livelihoods, that is the employment at risk in the event of continued erosion; the environmental or ecological premium, that is preservation of areas of scientific interest, heritage items, unique flora, fauna or habitats; and amenity protection, that is tourism, recreational or scenic beauty of coastal stretch must be preserved. It is essential that any preservation works undertaken will support rural development, tourism, environmental protection or other activities which contribute to increasing the economic potential of coastal regions.

Decisions have yet to be made on any additional works to be undertaken in 1995 and subsequent years. These decisions will not be made until the Department has received the priority proposals requested late last year from coastal local authorities.

As I said at the outset, responsibility in this case seems in the first instance to lie with Kerry County Council and I will, of course, consider whatever proposals are submitted by the council in conjunction with proposals submitted by other local authorities prior to the allocation of available funds.

The Dáil adjourned at 9 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 22 February 1995.