Clare council warned not to hinder influence of An Taisce

Clare County Council has been told that it is going down a dangerous road if it tries to sanction organisations that hold a different opinion to An Taisce.

That is the view of Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind), who said that the council would be doing a dis-service by seeking to have An Taisce's status under the planning acts reduced.

She said: "They are necessary and are important in a democracy and we do need people to act as watchdogs.

"An Taisce should become more focused and more relevant, but the council would be going down a dangerous road by trying to sanction organisations just because they hold a different opinion on matters."

Cllr McCarthy was speaking during a stormy and fractious debate on a motion put forward at the council's April meeting by the leader of the Fianna Fáil group, Cllr P.J. Kelly, seeking to radically reduce An Taisce's influence in planning matters.

Cllr Kelly's motion seeks to instruct the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, to remove An Taisce's prescribed status under the Planning Acts which ensures that An Taisce maintains its independent watchdog status.

The meeting was deferred from last week to allow An Taisce's Heritage Officer, Mr Ian Lumley, to address it.

Tabling the motion, Cllr Kelly said that the organisation threatened the lifeblood of Clare's rural areas. He said: "An Taisce wastes huge amounts of council time with spurious and nefarious objections."

He was supported by Cllr Tom Prendeville (FF), who said: "An Taisce is a faceless body, accountable to no one where it practises a policy of scorched earth on rural Ireland."

He said: "It would be a dereliction of duty if I was to stand idly by and allow this to continue. Mr Lumley is a good man and a brave man to come in here today, but as long as I live I will support rural Ireland."

In his address, Mr Lumley said that An Taisce's policy fully endorses the need to maintain family farm units and that persons with economic or family reasons to build rural houses outside towns should be facilitated to do so.

Mr Lumley admitted that An Taisce "acknowledges that there has often been a poor level of communication on its part on issues raised by rural housing".