Chairman of An Taisce in Clare offers to resign

The chairman of the Clare association of An Taisce yesterday offered to resign in response to the abuse heaped on the organisation in the recent past.

Oliver Moylan said if there was anyone in Co Clare who would like his position, he would gladly step aside. Mr Moylan's offer follows the Clare association being forced to withdraw its objection to a plan by journalist Fintan O'Toole to extend his second home near Ballyvaughan after the organisation labelled the plan "criminal" and likened it to an infection on the Clare coast.

In the Seanad, An Taisce came under sustained attack, with Senator Brendan Daly (FF) claiming the organisation had harassed and made life miserable for the ordinary people of north Clare for years. Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú (FF) said the preposterous language used in the objection showed a darker side to the organisation.

The withdrawal of the objection followed Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) claiming at a Clare County Council meeting that An Taisce was Ireland's only secret society that receives State recognition.

Yesterday, Mr Moylan said all An Taisce received for trying to protect Clare's landscape "is unadulterated abuse".

"I would like to emphasise to the people of Clare how difficult it is becoming to try and protect many of our beautiful areas. Some are gone beyond redemption and places like Kilkee, Lahinch and Fanore are cases in point. Protecting Lough Derg all along the east Clare side from unbridled development is becoming an impossible task."

A Fianna Fáil member of Clare County Council had equated An Taisce to al-Qaeda and the CIA, he said. "Was it right or fair to put me and my colleagues in that category? Are we not due an apology from Bertie Ahern, leader of Fianna Fáil? I would like to say to the people of Clare that An Taisce's concern is to pass on to the next generation our heritage and environment, as near possible as we inherited it. The first act the present Government did when it came to power was to remove An Taisce's annual subvention of €170,000 per annum."