By Chris Ashmore

AN INISHOWEN councillor has called for “immediate action” to be taken to ensure that dredging is undertaken to keep Donegal County Council controlled harbours free of silt in order to enable boats to berth at all tide levels.

Currently the Council has an annual budget of €250,000 for dredging but there are various regulatory procedures that must be gone through and specialist consultants engaged.

Speaking at a plenary meeting of the Council in Lifford, Cllr. Terry Crossan outlined the particular issues that are affecting Greencastle Harbour.

He disclosed that the harbour is now reduced to two landing piers for larger boats and this has an impact on landing times and restricts the handling to a couple of hours before and after high tide.

This is leading to additional costs for overtime if handling work is required at night or out of hours.

Furthermore, he revealed, for some boats in water of little depth the coolant systems are sucking in more sediment than water and this can have serious implications.

He also noted that there are a number of projects underway at the harbour. The coastguard building has defective concrete blocks and requires work while there is a need for more parking and slipway work.

Cllr. Crossan maintained that if the harbour is going to be continuously silted up it is a case of spending money in vain.

“We need to overcome the issues at the harbour and the breakwater,” he stated.

Cllr. Albert Doherty concurred with Cllr. Crossan’s views and commented that he had “never seen as many jumps to get over” before something is considered.

In an official reply, Cllr. Crossan was informed that dredging operations require consent from the Department Department for Agriculture, Food and the Marine or from the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority depending on the main function of the pier or harbour facility.

These consents are time limited and new consents must be applied for on a periodic basis.

Director of Service, Bryan Cannon, added: “These are complex applications and the studies required need to take seasonal factors into account meaning the programme for collating all relevant supporting data can take a number of years.

“Dredging works are tendered and undertaken by specialist marine contractors or from land where applicable. The Council appointed a specialist consultant to prepare new consent applications for Greencastle, Buncrana and Portmore Pier at Malin Head earlier this year.”