An Taisce has said it will take legal action against Mayo Co Council if it goes ahead with plans to "delist" the agency from notifications of planning matters.
Its spokesman, Mr Michael Smith, said yesterday members of the council who voted unanimously at a recent meeting to "delist" An Taisce should know that if they carry through on this threat "in breach of the new Planning Act", An Taisce would immediately seek redress against them "personally and collectively in the courts".
The council members had accused An Taisce of being a "faceless body" trying to "bury rural Ireland" through its objections to applications for single dwellings.
One member, Mr Johnny Mee, said of An Taisce: "They come down to the west of Ireland and try to treat the decent people of this county as if they were nonentities. Oliver Cromwell is remembered for saying 'To hell or to Connacht', but what An Taisce is saying is 'To hell out of Connacht'. It's outrageous they can come into our county and do this". Mr Smith said the reality was that An Taisce appealed just one planning permission in Mayo over the past five years. He said the agency would appeal more if it had the resources as "the quality of new development in Co Mayo is generally poor" and stressed that An Taisce, in its actions and in its policies, was pro-rural and pro-Mayo.
"An Taisce's policies support balanced regional development and in particular state that no more than 25% of development should take place in the Greater Dublin Area. Ironically in a practical way, An Taisce is leading the litigation against over-development of the Greater Dublin Area. Mayo County Council takes no stance on this issue, the most important issue facing Mayo. Instead, it spends its time attacking An Taisce.
"The people of Mayo deserve better than this rabble-rousing mythology from public representatives who do not realise that their County is being sacrificed to over-development of Dublin. Mayo would get better government if its county council were replaced by a combination of regional government and genuinely participative, community-led parish government," Mr Smith said.