Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 November 2014
170. Deputy Anne Ferris asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the coastal monitoring and conservation plans and objectives for the special area of conservation of Murrough wetlands between Greystones and Wicklow town; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44631/14]
View answerThe Murrough Wetlands SAC has conservation objectives which can be accessed at
http://www.npws.ie/media/npwsie/content/images/protectedsites/conservationobjectives/CO002249.pdf.
More detailed site-specific conservation objectives will be developed in the future.
Monitoring of the area was most recently carried out in 2007, as part of a national Saltmarsh Monitoring Project. The information relevant to the Murrough is reported under the site name Kilcoole; site code: SMP0036; and presented in the full report, which can be located at http://www.npws.ie/publications/archive/McCorry&Ryle2009SaltmarshsurveyV1.pdf.
This project was designed to meet the monitoring requirements of the EU Habitats Directive. The project mapped and assessed the conservation status of the saltmarsh habitats at 100 sites around the coast of Ireland. This included two types of saltmarsh habitat which occur in the Murrough Wetlands SAC.
