Coastal erosion: Why hasn't the State taken more action?

The coast in East Cork. In its Annual Review 2024 - Preparing for Ireland's Changing Climate report, the Climate Change Advisory Council said: “The Government should immediately develop and implement a coastal management plan to build resilience in coastal areas and communities against climate impacts, including sea level rise and coastal erosion. File picture: Dan Linehan

While the State set up a Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC), it has been slow to act on the body’s repeated calls for action ever since. In its first report in 2016, it warned of a need for “increasing the resilience of shared critical infrastructures” including “freshwater and coastal marine water bodies”.

It also said: “The council also wishes to highlight both the importance of Ireland’s coastal zones and their vulnerability to climate change impacts and sea level rise. These issues need to be addressed."

In 2017, the council again warned that the vulnerability of Ireland’s coastal zones to climate change impacts and sea level rise “need to be addressed”.

Its annual review the following year warned of “the need to prepare for, invest in and become resilient to climate change” and that “significant work is required on risk assessment, identifying options for effective action, implementation, monitoring and evaluation”.

(Left to right) Eugene Farrell, University of Galway, Martin Lynch and Martha Farrell of the Maharees Conservation Association stand next to a fence which has been erected to protect against the erosion of the sand dunes on Magherabeg Cut beach on the Maharees peninsula in West Kerry. Picture: Dan Linehan

In 2019, it said integrated coastal zone management and sectoral and local adaptation planning “must also be strengthened”.

In its Annual Review 2020, it noted: “The council has previously highlighted that . . . no sectoral adaptation plans are in place for . . . all aspects of coastal change and sea level rise that may be expected due to climate change."

The 2021 Annual Review noted that progress of the National Coastal Change Management Strategy expected in the spring of that year was overdue.

It was eventually published in October 2023, and led to the setting up of yet another body to look at the issue, the Interdepartmental Steering Group on Coastal Change.

That year, the council said: “Given rising sea levels, a Coastal Management Strategy is urgently needed to help actively manage our changing coastlines.

Members of the Maharees Conservation Association help with the sand art work on Brandon Bay to mark World Sand Dune Day last June. Silke Michels, Zoë Ui Fhaolain Green and Emer Fallon, all from Kerry, created a sand art collage to raise awareness about the significance of sand dunes as coastal erosion threatens coastal communities worldwide. Photo: Domnick Walsh © Eye Focus LTD

“Erosion, sea level rise and coastal storm events are being magnified by the changing climate. A clear and fit-for-purpose Coastal Management Strategy is urgently needed."

In its Annual Review 2024 - Preparing for Ireland's Changing Climate report, the council said: “The Government should immediately develop and implement a coastal management plan to build resilience in coastal areas and communities against climate impacts, including sea level rise and coastal erosion.

“The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage urgently needs to prioritise the immediate development and deployment of a coastal management strategy."

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This year, the Office of Public Works (OPW) announced commissioning research to identify how weather and sea changes will affect coastal areas of Donegal and Waterford,

The results of the study will then dictate what plan of action gets used for all of our coastal areas.

Given that the last major study into the impact on our coasts took 10 years to complete, one can only hope this time round the results will take a much shorter time to produce.

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB