Six environmental organisations have issued a joint appeal to four Ministers to halt the continuing damage to some of the Republic's prime ecological sites.
They say that sand-dune systems such as those at Doonbeg, Co Clare, uplands like the Barnesmore Gap in Co Donegal and other sensitive bogs and estuaries in 13 counties are under threat from the development of roads, fish factories, wind turbines, golf courses and leisure centres.
The six, Birdwatch Ireland, the Irish Peatland Conservation Council, An Taisce, Coastwatch Europe, Crann and the Irish Wildlife Trust, have demanded that the Ministers act immediately to protect the natural heritage.
The groups claim that none of Ireland's 800 proposed natural heritage areas have legal protection, because of successive Government delays in amending the 1976 Wildlife Act. A further 400 sites required as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) have not yet been submitted to the European Commission, although the deadline was June 1995. Over 100 sites designated as Special Protection Areas (SPA) continue to be damaged.
The organisations also claim that boundaries of "protected" sites originally surveyed are being redrawn to exclude areas planned for development.
This is understood to be the case in relation to the golf course in Doonbeg. And even though 75 per cent funding underpinning environmental protection is available from the European Commission, SPAs and SACs have been damaged by unauthorised developments, they say.
The six organisations are calling for publication of the delayed Wildlife Bill; restoration of "protected" sites which have been damaged by unauthorised activities; and submission of the list of Special Areas of Conservation to the Commission.
