SUPPORT IS mounting in the national rowing community for a campaign to save a weir in the Co Cork town of Fermoy and to protect the local rowing club.
The Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources proposes to replace the existing weir on the river Blackwater with a rock-ramp fish pass early in the New Year. The work is planned to coincide with a €32 million flood plan for Fermoy.
However, Fermoy Rowing Club claims the weir only needs to be repaired, and the department's plans will threaten the existence of the 125-year-old club.
A spokeswoman for the department told The Irish Times if the work was to proceed in conjunction with the Office of Public Works flood relief scheme it could be undertaken in 2009.
"A complaint was made to the EU Commission alleging that the weir at Fermoy, which is in a special area for conservation, is acting as a barrier to migrating salmon which are being injured and delayed in their attempts to migrate for spawning purposes.
"This is in breach of the EU habitats directive, and failure to rectify the position will result in infringement proceedings and very significant fines being imposed on the State," the spokeswoman said.
Secretary of Fermoy Rowing Club Donal O'Keeffe said the club believed the EU was being used as "the big bad wolf" by the department. It said the real impetus was coming from the Southern Regional Fisheries Board which was determined to move ahead with its plans to replace the weir.
Rowers from all over the country attended a Save The Weir rally in Fermoy at the weekend.
The Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Sean Power, told Fermoy Town Council he was willing to listen to any alternative the council's engineers were able to come up with.
While opponents of the plan say the department needs planning permission for the proposed work, the department spokeswoman said yesterday "this type of development" was exempt from planning permission, whether undertaken by the town council, as owners of the weir, or the fisheries board.
The rowing club commissioned an independent engineer's report which proposes the simplest and cheapest solution to the problem at Fermoy is to repair the existing weir and install a second fish pass which would allow the salmon to get up the river.
The club says the removal of the weir would mean their members as well as the local triathlon club, sub-aqua club, UCC canoe club, numerous kayakers, swimmers and others would be unable to use the river as the increased flow would lead to the very real danger that boats and swimmers would be sucked on to the rock pass.
