Bord Failte has objected to plans for a State land swap which would facilitate the development of an airstrip at Clifden, Co Galway. The tourist board has been joined by several national and international environmental organisations, including An Taisce, Plantlife, the wild plant conservation charity headed by Prof David Bellamy, the Irish Peatland Conservation Council and the Save Roundstone Bog campaign. Also objecting is a Dutch biologist and Roundstone resident, Dr Victor Westhoff.
In a submission to the Minister for Arts, Culture, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, Bord Failte says such an airstrip could pose a threat to Roundstone Bog, which it describes as "unique in European terms" and a "last bastion of real wilderness area in Connemara". The proposed new site is on State-owned land at Derry gimlagh, which borders on a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and is contiguous with the heart of the environmentally-sensitive blanket bog at Roundstone. It forms part of the site of the historic Marconi radio station, and has been designated as an area of high scenic amenity by Galway County Council. The closing date for objections to Duchas, the Heritage Service, is Monday. No plans for the development, which was first mooted on another site nine years ago, were lodged with Duchas before the land swap proposal was advertised in the local press.
Although the swap is of no obvious benefit to the State, it has been supported by the Minister of State for Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, Mr Eamon O Cuiv, who has said he is anxious to canvass opinion on the issue.
The backers, headed by Mr Paul Hughes, of Clifden Airport Company, were behind the original plan for an airport on the bog. Galway County Council refused planning permission for the project when the Office of Public Works designated the 80-acre site as an Area of Scientific Interest (ASI). In May 1993 the Supreme Court upheld a High Court decision that the OPW was wrong on constitutional grounds to give it ASI status. However, the promoters announced at the time that they had abandoned their plans.
Mr Tim Robinson, of the Save Roundstone Bog campaign, said this proposal should be opposed as vigorously as the last one.
"Because it is on a level with and close to the heart of Roundstone bog, any development there would intrude on the silent beauty of this unique tract of wilderness, and compromise its status as a wildlife habitat," he said.
Mr Leo Hallissey, a Connemara environmentalist who is also objecting, said a wonderful landscape would have to be protected. It was an important part of our European heritage, and we would "all be lessened" if the scheme, facilitated by the State, was to go ahead.
