This article is from page 11 of the 2006-11-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
AFTER three years in existence, the position of full-time biodiversity officer at Clare County Council is to be scrapped later this week.
The position, which has been held by Elaine Keegan since its creation in October of 2003, will be down-sized to a part-time position following the failure of Clare County Council to meet the shortfall in budgeting created by the withdrawal of LEADER funding.
The project was funded for last year through a combination of LEADER, Clare County Council and Heritage Council funding. All LEADER funding has been suspended until the end of 2007. It had been hoped that the local authority would put forward what one council member described as the “very small amount of money” required to keep the position viable.
“I find it hard to reconcile this when we appear to have appointed our sixth Director of Services at Clare County Council,” said Clare’s Green Party general election candidate, Cllr Brian Meaney.
“From my understanding, a Director of Services salary would pay for three full-time biodiversity officers. I cannot even contemplate the loss, or even the scaling back, of the biodiversity brief at the council. We should look at the more grandiose and cosmopolitan functions of the council before we cut back on something like this.”
In recent times, Ms Keegan has been responsible for a number of Clare County Council’s most successful projects. These include the recent survey of the cuckoo population in the county, the creation of a CD-ROM for primary schools on Clare Biodiversity and the recently formed Clare Bat Group.
“It is unfortunate that the funding is not available and we will have to scale back,” commented Ms Keegan. “We will carry on and push for more funding in the future. These projects should be funded by the Department of the Environment through the Parks and Wildlife Service as they have stated in their own biodiversity plan that each local authority should have a biodiversity officer.”
The work of the biodiversity officer will be discontinued completely in the beginning of next year, but will be restored in a part-time capacity later in 2007. It is hoped that ongoing projects such as field trips for primary and secondary schools and the work of the Clare Bat group will be continued for the immediate future.