Part of Tipperary’s Lough Derg shore line.
North Tipperary County Council this week rejected a motion calling on councillors to oppose a plan to extract huge volumes of water from Lough Derg, same intended to supply Co Dublin and other surrounding counties.
Instead a decision was taken, that until North Tipperary Council’s elected members have been given the opportunity to consider findings of independent consultants; latter soon to be appointed by North Tipperary County Council to access the impact that any extraction would have on the lake, no further action should be decided.
It was noted that five elected members of the 21-member North Tipperary council were not present for the final vote.
Dublin City Council have yet to make a formal application on this Lough Derg proposed water extraction plan, which will then to go through the independent planning process. North Tipperary County Council will then and only then form an overall view within this statutory planning process.
It is understood that a planning application to pipe the water from Derg to Dublin is likely be made by Dublin City Council sometime next year, and will take a further two years before any final decision is likely to be made by the Irish independent national planning body An Bord Pleanala.
Some councillors in attendance stated that this proposed plan, if implemented, could have a significant impact on the tourism and economic life of North Tipperary. It could also damage the entire lake, which was already designated as a “Special Area of Conservation and Protection.”
Councillors from counties Clare and Limerick, bordering on Lough Derg, have already rejected any future proposed water extraction plan.
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