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Five projects in Donegal have been included in a national programme to restore free flowing rivers by addressing issues with physical barriers such as dams and weirs.<\/p>\n
The \u2018Barrier Mitigation Programme\u2019\u00a0is led\u00a0by Inland Fisheries Ireland to\u00a0improve\u00a0river\u00a0connectivity\u00a0by strategically targeting significant barriers to fish passage.<\/p>\n
103 projects around the country will benefit from a \u20ac13.6 million investment.<\/p>\n
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Statement in full \u2013\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u20ac13.6 million for river barrier projects under the Barrier Mitigation Programme<\/p>\n
Funding Announced for 103 projects nationwide with Inland Fisheries Ireland by Minister James Browne and Minister of State Christopher O\u2019Sullivan\u00a0<\/p>\n
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103 projects around the country will benefit from a \u20ac13.6 million investment from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to restore free flowing rivers by addressing physical barriers such as dams and weirs impacting our waterways.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The \u2018Barrier Mitigation Programme\u2019\u00a0is led\u00a0by Inland Fisheries Ireland to\u00a0improve\u00a0river\u00a0connectivity\u00a0by strategically targeting significant barriers to fish passage and structures that are degrading river form, flow and function.The capital works\u00a0approved for\u00a0the 103 projects\u00a0across the country\u00a0are expected\u00a0to improve aquatic ecosystems and support fish populations in our rivers, thereby helping biodiversity.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Government\u2019s\u00a02024 Water Action Plan committed to provide funding for barrier mitigation. A\u00a0funding call from IFI took place in May 2025 to identify, select, and progress projects to address longitudinal barriers in Irish waterways. The 103 projects now announced meet predetermined ecological and implementation criteria and will proceed through the various project phases over the next 1-5 years.<\/p>\n
Minister\u00a0for Housing, Local Government and Heritage James\u00a0Browne\u00a0TD said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 103 fish barrier mitigation projects being initiated across Ireland are an important step towards accelerating improvements in water quality, particularly with respect to river connectivity and fish migration. This lays a great foundation from which future success\u00a0can be achieved\u00a0to improve water quality.\u00a0My Department is proud to continue to fund the National Barrier Mitigation Programme through the Government\u2019s current investment in water quality initiatives in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
Work began in 2018 to create a barrier inventory and prioritisation programme, operated by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), who have been cataloguing, assessing and prioritising the need for mitigation of longitudinal barriers (such as dams or weirs, for example) across Ireland, in recognition of the impacts of manmade barriers to the free flowing of waterways and indeed on the species living in our rivers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Barriers Mitigation Programme (BMP) was established in 2024 as a measure to address these physical impacts and the announcement today of the 103 projects represents significant progress in the protection of our rivers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Minister\u00a0of State\u00a0for Nature, Heritage and Biodiversity Christopher\u00a0O\u2019Sullivan\u00a0TD emphasised:<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s announcement is an investment in the health of our rivers and the species that call them home, and a vital contribution towards the achievement\u00a0of\u00a0Ireland\u2019s targets for free-flowing rivers under the Nature Restoration Law. It\u2019s essential that we continue to make efforts to improve the ecological status of our freshwater habitats, not only to improve the fortunes of iconic and threatened species like Atlantic salmon, European eel and lamprey, but also for everyone who loves and cherishes their local river.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Barrier Mitigation Programme supports requirements under the Water Framework Directive and conservation objectives in Special Areas of Conservation and for the Habitats Directive Annex II and V listed fish species, as well contributing to climate mitigation. It will also contribute to the EU Biodiversity Strategy, which sets a European wide target of making at least 25,000km of rivers free flowing again by 2030. Furthermore, Article 9 of the EU Nature Restoration Law (NRL) provides for the restoration of the natural connectivity of rivers and natural functions of the related floodplains.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Barry Fox Deputy CEO of Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) added:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIFI is deeply committed to restoring natural connectivity in our rivers by removing obstacles for migrating fish. The agency is delivering an ambitious programme of barrier mitigation works nationwide. These works will contribute to the long-term sustainability and productivity of our rivers into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five projects in Donegal have been included in a national programme to restore free flowing rivers by addressing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-168984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}