Why is it that our coastline is so neglected? The question must be asked, and asked again, if there is to be any hope of averting the multifarious threats that are already damaging what should be a prized national asset. It is now nearly three decades since the first National Coastline Study was published in 1972 and subsequently pigeonholed. And seven years have passed since proposals by the Coastwatch campaigner, Ms Karin Dubsky, to establish a broad-based coastal zone management regime were officially endorsed, yet nothing has been done.
Could it be, as our Marine Correspondent suggested in this week's three-part series on our coasts, that an "insular, almost hostile attitude to the environment beyond the shoreline" pervades the bureaucracy? Certainly, the capacity to implement a co-ordinated response is hamstrung by the division of responsibility between different Government departments, local authorities and even harbour companies. Setting up an inter-departmental committee appears to have made little difference.
The impact of proliferating holiday home clusters in Achill, Courtown, Tramore and other coastal areas is about all we have to show for the misconceived tax incentive scheme for traditional seaside resorts. And now An Taisce has written off large parts of counties Donegal and Galway because their coastlines have been so blighted by unrestrained development, particularly housing, that they are "irredeemable". Leitrim's short coastline appears to be going the same way.
Many of those building houses in scenic coastal locations may live to regret it if sea levels rise, as predicted, because of climate change. Although Dr John Sweeney, of NUI Maynooth, believes the effects of global warming on the Irish coast are likely to be "not too cataclysmic" - compared to low-lying East Anglia, for example - we cannot afford to ignore them. In some cases, heavy engineering defences will be required; in others, particularly on in the south-east, planned retreat seems to be the only economically-viable option.