Port company agrees to restore part of estuary filled in during dredging

Legal proceedings between Coastwatch Ireland campaigner Ms Karin Dubsky and Drogheda Port Company were adjourned at the High Court yesterday after DPC undertook to restore, as an interim measure, a polder in the River Boyne estuary. It had been filled in as part of dredging works.

The polder is part of a special protection area which includes areas providing feeding ground for wintering birds.

Ms Dubksy has claimed that 25 per cent of the feeding area has been damaged by the dredging works. Earlier yesterday, she applied for orders directing the port company to restore to its original state a site near the Stagrennan polder. At the outset of the hearing, Mr Pat Butler SC, for DPC, applied for an adjournment. While DPC denied Ms Dubsky's claims that the dredging works had breached a foreshore licence, the company had applied for a new licence to the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources.

If the licence was granted, the proceedings would be unnecessary, Mr Butler argued.

Mr Maurice Gaffney SC, for Ms Dubsky, opposed the application to adjourn. His client wanted restoration of the site. Mr Justice O'Higgins noted the licence application had been made only on June 25th, although legal proceedings had been going on for some time, and he refused to adjourn the hearing. However later, with consent of both sides, he agreed to do so until October 8th on DPC's undertaking to restore as an inter-tidal polder by September 1st, a polder at "Gogarty's" measuring 1.3 hectares, at the eastern end of the estuary. DPC also agreed to pay the costs of yesterday's proceedings.

Ms Dubsky also claimed the work area was outside the foreshore for which work was permitted under a licence granted in May 1998. DPC denied a breach of the licence or other covenants and pleaded the works were authorised. Without prejudice to those denials, the company said, it had applied on June 25th for a new dredging licence for the southern side of the River Boyne.

The reason for the works was to provide sufficient draught in a turning basin to match the dredged depth of the Boyne to permit the turning of commercial shipping using the new Drogheda Quay at Tom Roe's Point.

If the works were not authorised, there was a potential loss of 100 jobs, DPC's chief executive Mr Paul Fleming said in an affidavit.