The people of Limerick are invited to attend a public consultation today, Wednesday, on a major strategic plan for the future development and management of marine-related industry and tourism along Ireland’s largest estuary, the Shannon Estuary. The Draft Strategic Integrated Framework Plan (SIFP) for the Shannon Estuary was launched last month by Jan O’Sullivan TD, Minister of State for Housing and Planning, and was commissioned by a multi-agency steering group comprising Clare County Council as lead authority, Kerry County Council, Limerick City and County Councils, Shannon Development and Shannon Foynes Port Company.
The land and marine-based plan, the first of its type to be developed in Ireland, indentifies a number of strategic sites along the Estuary for future possible development in the areas of industry, tourism, energy, fishing and aquaculture and marine-related industry.
Public consultation will take place at Foynes Community Centre today Wednesday 30th January from 4.30pm to 8.30pm. It will feature presentations on the contents of the draft plan, while members of the public will also be able to discuss the plan with local authority officials and representative of the appointed consultants, RPS Consulting Engineers.
Meanwhile, the SIFP for the Shannon Estuary is on display until February 15th to give the public an opportunity to view the proposals and put forward their opinions to the appointed project consul-tants.
On completion later this year, it is anticipated that the SIFP will be incorpor-ated, by means of Varia-tion, into the relevant County and City Develop-ment Plans. Further consultation with the public will take place as part of that statutory variation process.
For more on the Draft Stra-tegic Integrated Framework Plan (SIFP) for the Shan-non Estuary visit www.shannonestuarysifp.ie.