Anglers frustrated at lack of action at Corkagh Lakes

LOCAL anglers have shared their frustration at the lack of action from South Dublin County Council regarding the ongoing issue of dumping and littering at Corkagh Lakes.

Members of the Corkagh Lakes Project, which is a collaborative effort between anglers and local residents “have been cleaning the lakes every week for months” and have yet to receive an invite to meet with SDCC, as promised.

The Project’s community survey, which ran from September 9 to 21, drew 220 responses from individuals calling for greater action to protect the Lake’s wildlife and natural habitats and 90 per cent were open to a managed fishing scheme.

Based on the evidence of the survey, Corkagh Lakes Project members are calling for SDCC to “co-design a controlled, conservation-first 12-month trial — responsible angling from commencement, clear rules, monitoring, review, and reversible at any point.”

It was previously reported that SDCC stated, “daily inspections of the park are carried out by Council staff, with litter, debris and other hazards removed as part of routine maintenance operations,” yet a spokesperson for the Project told The Echo, “that has not been our experience.”

“It is the anglers who have been cleaning the lakes every week for months — unpaid and unprompted. It was members of the public who recovered the bodies of the three cygnets that drowned in discarded line. And it was anglers who rescued several further swans from that same line before they met the same fate.”

In early August, three cygnets were removed from Corkagh Lakes by anglers, after having died due to ingesting irresponsibly discarded fishing line.

Corkagh Lakes Project are asking the council to “correct the record, publish the findings of its ‘assessments’, and — above all — honour its commitment and sit down with the Corkagh Lakes Project. The community is ready. The proposal is on the table. The only thing missing is the Council.”

“This is a community that has done everything asked of it: cleaned the lakes, rescued the wildlife, organised itself, surveyed itself, and come forward with a detailed, safeguards-first proposal.

“What it has received in return is silence — and a public statement claiming credit for work the community itself has done.”

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme