digging out beaches

was wondering do councils have a cart blanche to dig sand out of beaches etc.

i was told about this in salthill by a good few people

essentially if they want to do work under the banner of sea defense improvements they can go ahead or do they need to EIA or EIS or public consultation

thanks

Pretty sure that if an area is covered by an SPA or similar, as a lot of beaches are, they would need to apply to the Department of the Environment for a license.

I'm not sure about the more general case.