Protecting Ireland's bat population could help farmers survive into the future, a conference on the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (Reps) was told yesterday in Tullamore, Co Offaly.
Ms Catherine Kenna, a Teagasc countryside management specialist, said a major educational programme was needed to inform Irish farmers about flora and fauna.
"They also have to learn that there is money in protecting animals and plants, and it will deliver much-needed income to them," she said.
Under the Reps scheme, farmers are rewarded for carrying our their activities in an environmentally friendly manner.
Farmers can receive as much as €242 a hectare every year for eligible commonage land, natural heritage areas, special areas of conservation and special protection areas, up to a maximum of 40 hectares, if they comply with certain conditions such as retaining wildlife habitats and avoiding pesticides and fertilisers.
Ms Kenna said Ireland had a great many species which had already been wiped out in Europe, and for that reason pressure was on the Government and farmers to conserve these.
"We have nine species of bat in Ireland and they are all protected, but special protection has to be given to the lesser horseshoe bat which has roosts along the west and south," she said.
Ms Kenna said there were 24 species which required the strictest protection, and these included the otter, the grey and common seals, the bottle-nosed dolphin, the porpoise, salmon, the river, brook and sea lampreys and the twaite shad, which is confined to the Killarney lakes.
Special areas of conservation were also designated for the white-clawed crayfish, the marsh fritillary butterfly and the Kerry slug, which was common in the south-west. She said potential conflict existed over the conservation of the freshwater pearl mussel, as an attempt was being made to prevent farming activity within 30 metres of the rivers in which it was found over a large portion of the country.
Many farmers and even planning experts would not be aware that a plant called the slender naiad, rare but found in the west of Ireland, and the marsh saxifrage, a plant found in Mayo and Antrim, was strictly protected.
She said there had been conflict over the protection of the hen harrier in Limerick, and bird species using good land to winter had created problems.