Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 November 2020
601. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the steps he will take to ensure that the NPWS put a specific farm plan scheme in place for farmers within the catchment of Lough Funshinagh, County Roscommon, following the OPW-funded report by Roscommon County Council regarding the lack of cost effective mitigation measures for flooded farmland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32841/20]
View answerIn 2018, officials from the National Parks & Wildlife Service of my Department attended a meeting with stakeholders, including OPW, Roscommon County Council, the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI) and public representatives relating to ongoing flooding issues at Lough Funshinagh SAC.
I understand that the GSI have been monitoring water levels on Lough Funshinagh since 2016, and that they have indicated that the levels are due to rainfall rather than blockage or change in the natural draining system. GSI have found that the rate of drainage during dry periods has been consistent since monitoring and the problem is that the drainage rate, in general, is unusually slow for a turlough its size.
While most turloughs empty each summer, Funshinagh is slow to drain, typically every 4-5 years. It is evident that Funshinagh does not get a chance to ‘reset’ its flood pattern each year. As a consequence, Funshinagh has not drained since before the 2016 flood and is still impacted by this flood. This issue has been further exacerbated by the heavy rainfall in February of this year.
Attempts were made on behalf of the local authority in 2016, to unblock a swallow hole but this did not appear to have an impact on drainage. The GSI has concluded that this is likely because the issue related to the aquifer itself which cannot transmit the water any faster, particularly when saturated. GSI note that the water travels underground for at least 5km before emerging at a spring and altering the natural drainage network itself is not a viable option.
In response to concerns that landowners are unable to continue to farm the land due to the continuous flooding, NPWS commissioned a study, clearly flagged as without prejudice, 'To assess the current situation where flooded land is now deemed as non-eligible for payments under current EU payment schemes on the farmers’ .
NPWS worked closely with the Local Authority GIS Unit and local farmers throughout the study. The study found that most of the flooding is outside the designated area.
The NPWS Farm Plan Scheme is a small scheme nationally, designed to trial conservation management measures at a local scale and would not be the appropriate measure to address this problem which is recurring and not strictly a nature conservation or management issue. NPWS is not in a position to develop Farm Plans to pay farmers for flooded areas where they are unable to farm as this would be ultra vires the scheme.
