Boost for council opposed to bird protection plan

OPPOSITION by Clare County Council to the blanket designation of the Shannon estuary for protected birds has received a boost.

The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht confirmed last month it had received 124 objections to its contentious plan to designate the lower Shannon estuary a Special Protection Area (SPA) for birds.

According to the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), the River Shannon and Fergus estuaries SPA site “is the most important coastal wetland site in the country and regularly supports in excess of 50,000 wintering waterfowl, a concentration easily of international importance”.