More time is being sought for the completion a new deep water quay at Ros a Mhíl Fishery Harbour Centre.
The Department Agriculture, Food & The Marine is seeking an extension of planning permission for the 200m quay, which was first approved in 2018.
The project involves the creation of 200m of new berthing space to accommodate larger fishing vessels, as well as the reclamation of a significant area directly behind the quay to provide a direct link to land.
Other construction work involved in the project will include low concrete sea walls, a rock armour revetment, an access road, lighting, drainage, and ancillary site works.
Planning permission for the project will cease to have effect in July, five years and 101 days after being granted.
The Extension of Duration application states that work began in January of this year, and that the land reclamation works have since been 90% completed.
So far an area of 26,000m² of land has been reclaimed via the infilling of 190,000m³ of rock. Rock armour is also being prepared for the norther and southern revetments.
More than half of the required seabed drilling and blasting in preparation for building the quay wall caisson units has also been completed.
It is now expected that the deep water quay will be completed in December of 2024, and the Department is seeking a five year extension of the planning permission.
The full five years is being sought just in case of the “remote possibility of contractual problems or commercial failure by the contractor”, which would require the project to go back to tender.
The department had already sought an extension of planning permission for the deep water quay back in 2022, but this was denied as no works had taken place at the time.
The government announced in February of 2022 that €25 million would be invested in the expansion and redevelopment of the state owned Fishery Harbour Centre at Ros a Mhíl.
It was hoped that the project, which centred around the new deep water quay, would allow larger fishing vessels to dock at the Connemara harbour.
This would bring Ros a Mhíl more in line with the facilities available at Killybegs and Castletownbere, making it more commercially viable for the region.
A report by Údarás na Gaeltachta also highlighted that Ros a Mhíl is well placed to serve as a support hub for offshore wind power developments.
The redevelopment and expansion of the harbour will be funded under the Coastal Infrastructure Development Programme.
