Project Background: The Mulkear EIP is a five year project focused on innovation, technology and knowledge transfer for farmer led enhancement of water quality, instream habitat and riparian management in the Mulkear Catchment covering Limerick and Tipperary counties.
The European Innovation Partnership (EIP) initiative, co-funded by Ireland and the EU under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, is a new co-operation measure under Article 35(1) of the regulation. EIPs promote local solutions to specific issues and involve the establishment of Operational Groups to develop ideas, or take existing ideas/research and put them into practice by being hands on in terms of working towards the resolution of a practical problem.
The Mulkear EIP is bottom-up approach in its design and nature. The project is run by Mulkear Catchment Limited and wider support groups supported by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The Mulkear EIP offers an exciting opportunity to help address water quality issues on a catchment basis. The project commenced in April 2019 and will run until at least December 2023 implementing a 5-year work programme with local farmers.
The project will deliver a partnership approach focused on enhancing water quality and sustainable water management on local farms. It will do so by adopting a catchment approach and implementing a suite of catchment sensitive farming measures to support farm viability, water quality and biodiversity. The project will be implemented across the Mulkear Catchment (Counties Limerick & Tipperary) and has a total budget of €1,172,830.
This video describes Vincent Wildlife Trust Ireland’s innovative work in 2022 with the Mulkear River Catchment European Innovation Partnership and farmers in east Limerick when we constructed six new roosts for the lesser horseshoe bat. This project represents the first time that funding under an agri-environmental scheme has been provided for the lesser horseshoe bat and we will be closely monitoring how the bats respond to this initiative.
