A DONEGAL mayor has criticised an EU directive that has delayed the removal of a giant landslide and left 20 families isolated for nine days in a remote part of the Gaeltacht.
Council engineers have been told they cannot start clearing tonnes of mud and debris blocking a remote country road until after a report on the ecological implications has been completed.
Mayor of Donegal County Council Brendan Byrne, who has been trying to organise some relief for the trapped families since early last week, claimed the plant life was “of more concern to the bureaucrats in the EU than the humans”.
An estimated 44,000 cubic metres of mud is blocking a stretch of narrow bog road linking Glencolmcille with Meenacross and Port.
The road is impassable to residents of the townlands of Strabui, Kiltyfanned, Lougherherk and Largybrack since the landslide swept down on to it from the foothills of Sliabh Tooey after torrential rain last Sunday week. Workers were ready to start a clean-up by the middle of last week after council engineers assessed the situation.
Then their attention was drawn to Article 6 of the EU habitats directive under which the wetland locality is designated a special area of conservation.
That meant an ecology report had to be prepared to assist conservationists advise on how and where to move the mud without affecting the surrounding plant life.
Mr Byrne said the mudslide was still moving a few metres a day.