The Department of Agriculture has selected the project team to run the Frehswater Pearl Mussel Programme. Environmental consultants Wetlands Surveys Ireland will lead a team headed by Dr Patrick Crushell and supported by O’Connor Pyne & Co accountants.

A €10m budget is available to support farmers in parts of counties Kerry, Cork, Galway, Mayo and Donegal in designing and implementing actions to conserve the protected mussel species. The project was due to start with the Hen Harrier Programme last year, but the tender to appoint the management team was delayed.

Actions

"The new Project Team will now commence developing the various actions to be carried out by farmers in the areas concerned in consultation with my own Department and the National Parks and Wildlife Service of the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, as well as with farmers on the ground," said Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed.

The scheme will open to farmers once participants agree actions and payments to enhance the habitat of freshwater pearl mussels.

This locally-led model pioneered in the Burren is widely seen as an increasingly common way of delivering farm payments in the future.

Read more

Kerry LIFE: strengthening the mussel population