Full and immediate enforcement of the EU Habitats Directive is needed to ensure Irish sites designated as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) do not continue to be damaged and destroyed, according to five leading environmental and conservation groups.
Two years ago, they released a list of 23 threatened wildlife sites. As a result of ongoing monitoring, they have highlighted five additions - and continuing damage to the original 23 sites. They have also accused the heritage service, Duchas, and the Minister for the Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, of lacking the vision and ambition necessary to impress on landowners the need for a new approach to development "without compromising species and habitats".
The SAC appeals procedure lacked transparency and it was proving impossible to access much of the documentation surrounding it, said Mr Tony Lowes of An Taisce. "We should be allowed access to the decision-making process."
While in some cases sites were being destroyed as a by-product of other developments, in other cases it appeared the intention was to destroy their scientific value in order to avoid SAC wildlife designation, said Coastwatch Ireland co-ordinator Ms Karin Dubsky, who sits on a SAC appeals board. "This disastrous situation must be changed."
SACs are legally protected under the EU Habitats Directive from the time the landowner is notified of the proposed designation. Landowners are informed that certain activities cannot be undertaken without the consent of the Minister. However, "many are unwittingly or blatantly disregarding this protection", the groups alleged.
The additional SACs, which they claim were destroyed or are under immediate threat of destruction, are: Pollardstown Fen - despite a redesign of the Kildare bypass; Brittas Bay in Co Wicklow, due to destruction of dunes; Barrigone near Askeaton, Co Limerick, where quarrying may be permitted; Moud's Bog in Co Kildare, due to extension of industrial moss peat extraction, and Wexford Harbour, where five hectares of mudflats at Ferrybank have been infilled.
In some cases, parts of the SACs have been "de-designated" on economic grounds, Ms Shirley Clerkin of the Irish Wildlife Trust claimed, when this should be done only on scientific grounds.
"If SAC protection is to be really meaningful, planning authorities must consider the environmental impacts of proposed developments within SACs."
Dr Peter Foss, of the Irish Peatland Conservation Council, said the directive provided the means to protect natural heritage. "We need to do more rather than the minimum to protect wildlife." While efforts to get sites listed proved difficult - "so many bits are being taken out; a drain in here, a bypass there" - nibbling at sites did not make for manageable SACS, he said.
Even where sites were designated they were not being protected through the planning process, said Mr Paul Galvin, of Birdwatch Ireland. In a majority of cases related to SACs and Special Areas of Protection, Duchas had not commented, due to what it said was a lack of resources, he noted.
Green TD Mr Trevor Sargent said that in the light of inadequate protection of so many important sites, he was calling on the Minister to investigate the role and effectiveness of Duchas. Independent Socialist TD Mr Joe Higgins said the NGOs should take a leaf out of the developers' book by haranguing public representatives, who then jump to their demands.
"It is inadmissible that our Minister in charge of protecting national heritage and Duchas itself should be silent on so many breaches of the Habitats Directive and the Wild Birds Directive," said Green MEP Ms Patricia McKenna.
