The rate of coastal erosion in Ireland is rising, putting at risk an increasing amount of valuable agricultural land, a climate change professor has said.

Professor Conor Murphy of Maynooth University, speaking on a Teagasc Signpost webinar, outlined the case of Kilpatrick Beach in north Wexford where mapping over the past 150 years shows a “shocking” level of coastal erosion.

Murphy said the average rate of coastal erosion at Kilpatrick had been approximately 1.8m per year from 1900, with that level increasing since around 1980.

“From different periods of historical mapping in Ireland you can see clearly the retreat of the coastal area, the loss of important land, exposing local houses or infrastructure to erosion risks.

“We’ve seen approximately almost 230m of land lost since 1900. That’s quite shocking to me and this is happening across large parts of our coastal areas, putting at risk agricultural land,” he said.

Agricultural impact Murphy added that coastal erosion is impacting agriculture and valuable land is being lost to the sea.

“There are many reports of farmers in Wexford, for example, losing valuable agricultural land to coastal erosion.

“Sea-level rise/coastal erosion is an impact on agriculture that we don’t often think about that I wanted to draw attention to,” Murphy added.