It took just two days with a digger to route a channel to the sea and save twenty more Galway homes from flood devastation last weekend – but, as with so many other areas across the county, it could have been done years ago.
Instead, strictly enforced EU Habitats Directives mean the reality is that Galway farmers face fines of up to half a million euro if they even clean a land drain without permission on special areas of conservation.
And even more routine drainage projects find themselves shelved on a wave of objections from environmental lobby groups.
ICMSA president John Comer summed it up this week on a visit to flood-devastated areas around Clare.
“We know the Government can’t stop the rain, but they can stop the rain of confusion among the plethora of agencies that have jurisdiction and governance over the waterways of Ireland.
“A lot of locals here feel that the birds, the frogs and the fish, are getting priority over humans, and human suffering,” he said.
The weekend works, involving four machines, removed millions of gallons of water from an area of South Galway near Labane to the sea at Kinvara.
The work – carried out by Galway County Council – began at the Kinvara end and the diggers worked their way back to Cahermore near Labane which gathers water from the Coole and Kiltartan areas.
But this success contrasts to the situation elsewhere in the county; since the introduction of the EU Habitats Directive in the 1990s, SACs in Ireland enjoy the full clout of EU legislation behind them with the aim of preserving natural habitats.
And yet according to Eyrecourt farmer and Chairman of the Shannon Callows Project Team, Charlie Killeen, what is happening to farmers in that area as a result was ‘the biggest land grab since the days of Cromwell’.
“We cannot clear a drain or plant a tree without applying for permission – if we do so, it’s an offence carrying a maximum fine of €500,000 and a jail sentence. It’s like penal times,” he said.
See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune
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