Vegetation (Floating River Vegetation) - Office of Public Works

•11,505km of rivers and streams, collectively known as channels
•733 km of tidal and river embankment
•18,500 bridges. A significant portion of these bridges are road bridges where Local Authorities
are responsible for the structural integrity and the Office of Public Works are responsible for
flood conveyance.
•742 sluices
•9 pumping stations (Office of Public Works website).
175 years on, the work undertaken by the Commissioners of Public Works is evolving to
meet the challenges of the 21 st century. Along with the maintenance of drainage schemes,
embankment systems, bridges, sluices and pumping stations, flood management and
environmental drainage maintenance are elements of modern policy which the Commissioners are
incorporating as part of arterial drainage maintenance programmes (Office of Public Works, 2007).
1.2 Legal and policy context for this ecological assessment
In an effort to maintain biological diversity within European Union member states, a series
of Directives was put in place to ensure conservation and protection of endangered and rare species
and their habitats. The following is a selection of the European and Irish laws adopted with respect
to nature conservation. A function of the Wildlife Act, 1976 was to conserve and protect both flora
and fauna by developing wildlife refuges associated with land, inland waterways and marine
environments. Council Directive 79/409/EEC provided protection for wild birds naturally occurring
in the European Union including birds, their eggs, nests and habitats i.e. Special Protection Areas
(SPA). Article 3 of the Council Directive 92/43/EEC undertook the development of an ecological
network of Special Areas of Conservation, namely Natura 2000 by placing an emphasis on habitat
conservation. Together these Directives and Acts were transposed into Irish Law and became
known as the European Communities (Natural Habitats) Regulations, 1997 i.e. the conservation of
natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (Habitats Directive).
As outlined in Section 31 of the Regulations it is required that all works undertaken by the
State within a European site must undertake an appropriate assessment outlining the impact of the
work with respect to the conservation aspect of the site. To comply with the above legislation the
Office of Public Works has published a report titled “Screening of Natura 2000 Sites For Impacts of
Arterial Drainage Maintenance Operations”.
The report aims to develop a strategic approach to fulfilling the legal requirement of
environmental assessment prior to works undertaken by the Office of Public Works in European
sites. By identifying channels that exist in European protected sites the Office of Public Works have
identified a number of ecological impact assessments, which specifically relate to protected flora
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