Vol. 516 No. 4
103 Mr. Kenny asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands if she will make a statement on the change made in the SPA S.I. No. 367 of 1999 concerning the Sandymount Strand-Tolka Estuary SPA between the date of advertisement of 13 July 1999 and date of declaration on 2 February 2000; the impact, if any, this has in relation to the 52 hectare area proposed to be infilled by Dublin Port Company; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8449/00]
In July 1999 my Department advertised a proposal to extend the Sandymount Strand-Tolka Estuary special protection area. I am advised that the area which Dublin Port wishes to infill, as part of the port development, is not important for birds so no part of it has been included in the SPA extension, as indicated by the definitive map in the statutory instrument. This involved a small adjustment of the boundary as previously advertised.
The majority of the proposed port extension area is covered by the sea at all times and is not regularly used by waterfowl. A small portion of this area is exposed at very low tides and when this occurs a number of common, adaptable wader species opportunistically exploit the exposed invertebrate food resource there. As this inter-tidal area is very small, extensive inter-tidal mud and sandflats are available nearby in Dublin Bay and the food resource is available to the birds only very briefly, at low spring tides, no bird species have any dependence on this area. Accordingly, from a bird conservation viewpoint, my Department has no objection to Dublin Port infilling the area.
