Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 June 2016
152. Deputy Michael Moynihan asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will amend the conservation designation with respect to the River Blackwater special area of conservation in County Cork following her studies on the prevalence of the freshwater pearl mussel; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16256/16]
View answerThe River Blackwater Special Area of Conservation (SAC) includes the main river channel and many tributaries from the headwaters to the sea. The SAC has many habitats and species which are qualifying interests in the Annexes to the Habitats Directive. The full list of qualifying interests is available at http://www.npws.ie/protected-sites/sac/002170.
One of the species originally included as a qualifying interest is the freshwater pearl mussel, which occurs in relatively small numbers at a number of locations along much of the length of the river.
My Department prepared a Strategy for Conservation of the Freshwater Pearl Mussel in Ireland in 2011, with the objective of ensuring the long-term survival of the species in Ireland, while maintaining its broad geographic range. The strategy sets out a prioritised approach to the implementation of measures necessary to conserve the species. The strategy seeks to ensure that the most important pearl mussel populations in Ireland, and indeed in the EU, will return to favourable conservation status in the short to medium term.
In developing the strategy it was noted that measures, irrespective of cost, would be likely to be ineffective in the River Blackwater, owing to the very large catchment and the intensity of pressures therein. For that reason my Department is currently working to amend the conservation objectives for the Blackwater SAC, so that there would no longer be the objective of maintaining or restoring mussel populations in the main channel of the river. However the conservation objectives for protecting the mussel will continue to apply in the Lickey and Allow tributaries of the Blackwater, which are included in the SAC.
It is also intended to amend the European Communities Environmental Objectives (Freshwater Pearl Mussel) Regulations 2009. (S.I. 296 of 2009) to give further effect to the alteration of the conservation objectives for the River Blackwater SAC.
These changes do not alter the boundaries of the River Blackwater SAC, and do not affect the protection afforded to the other qualifying interests therein.
