A decade and a half on from the High Court order that blocked the Mullaghmore interpretative centre, the Government still has no cohesive plan for the Burren, writes Brian O'Connell
IT'S BEEN MORE THAN 15 years since the Mullaghmore controversy first began to divide the community in north Clare, intensifying the debate between conservationism and commercialism in one of Ireland's unique natural landscapes.
As a result of the controversy, the State was forced to demolish the unfinished interpretative centre in the Burren National Park, at a cost of €1 million, after the Burren Action Group secured a High Court order. There are some in the local community now arguing that the impact of that is still having an effect on the way the Burren landscape is promoted and protected.
At the end of August, planning permission for what was meant to be the National Parks and Wildlife Services staff headquarters in the Burren National Park ran out after five years. Two period houses, dating back to the 1900s and ideally located on the main street in Corofin, Co Clare, had been purchased, and while plans were submitted to refurbish and renovate the premises, staff have been operating out of facilities in Ennis. Both buildings in Corofin are now in a dilapidated condition and have been targeted by vandals.
Symbolically, the lack of progress on their refurbishment and their present condition is perhaps indicative of a more deep-rooted Government reluctance to engage fully with the issues and needs of the greater Burren landscape. Or, as one local politician puts it, "They got burned once before, they're slow to go down that road again."
GERARD KENNEDY, chairman of the Corofin Development Association, outlines the frustrations that exist locally. "We've been taking a softly, softly approach up until now. I'm not interested in raking over the past of Mullaghmore, but the OPW acquired those two houses as staff premises for the Burren National Park. All along, we have been told they would be developing that site. Five years have passed and now both premises have boarded-up windows and look terrible. The garage attached to one was set on fire recently, and, following pressure from locals, a lick of paint was applied to one house. But if an ordinary Joe Soap allowed period buildings to deteriorate like that, there would be outrage. And this is meant to be the Burren National Park staff headquarters?"
Brian Meaney, a Green Party councillor in Ennis, goes further: "I have contacted the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government in relation to the lack of progress in developing the Burren National Park. They said they would get back to me on it, and didn't. Suitable tracts of land have come up for sale in recent times and they should have been bought and added to the park. The Department's attitude, though, is typified by the way they have handled the staff headquarters in Corofin.
"We're 15 years down the road from the Mullaghmore controversy at this point. I think reason and sense won out on that occasion, but perhaps people haven't moved on from there," he says. "My assessment is that the Department is now acting with a certain degree of petulance in relation to the area and doesn't see it as a priority as a result of that past debacle." Fine Gael TD Pat Breen has tabled two Dáil motions questioning progress on the Burren National Park headquarters. He says: "It's scandalous this funding has not been put in place for these buildings. Very little has happened in relation to the Burren in the last decade. As everyone knows, the area could be a huge magnet for appropriate tourist and environmental visitors from all over the world - it's just waiting to be tapped."
A spokesperson for Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, John Gormley, rejected the assertion that no progress has been made, and said the Minister visited the region last February and gave a strong commitment to the area. He hopes to meet interested groups in the coming months "when diaries allow".
The spokesperson also said that the OPW has ultimate responsibility for the running and development of the buildings in Corofin.
The OPW says it is "working in conjunction with the National Parks and Wildlife Service of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government on an accommodation brief for the premises in Corofin. This brief was not finalised before the planning permission expired."
As to what happens next, the OPW says, "Consultants were recently working on a new planning and fire-safety application to the local authority. Sanction to proceed with this project will be required from the Department of Finance before an application can be lodged with Clare County Council." In other words, things are back to square one. It begs the question - where does all this leave the Burren National Park, and what does the lack of progress in relation to the headquarters say about more general issues in the region?
Part of the problem is that while there are many good initiatives in the Burren, the environmental and conservation approach is more individualistic than coherent. Since the Mullaghmore controversy, several committed and hard-working groups have emerged, including Burren Beo, Burren Life, Burren Connect and Burren Way. Yet, there is a distinct lack of overall planning, strategy or approach to the issues facing the Burren, and no real guidance from Government on how to deal with those issues in an inclusive manner. Personnel working in the different groups and initiatives often overlap, and each new group and project that emerges is careful not to re-ignite sensitivities of the past.
Burren expert Dr Brendan Dunford is one of those who has worked tirelessly to build and sustain initiatives and help maintain the integrity of the Burren area. His focus with Burren Beo has been to provide an online portal where information on the area can be accessed, filling a need for information which hadn't been addressed since the interpretative centre controversy.
The website receives close to 400,000 individual impressions annually and three to four million hits overall. Working initially on an entirely voluntary basis, Dunford now receives funding from EU and Government sources, and is due to meet the Minister in the near future.
"IN ONE WAY, not a lot has happened in the past decade," Dunford says, "There have been little bits done. But the Burren is such an extraordinary resource, that we are still waiting for it to be developed in a respectful manner and for it to fulfil its potential properly. The centre issue was very divisive, and we need to turn that around and for the community to be more proactive and less reactive. It amazes me how many people got so passionate and involved about the location of the visitor centre. It's much harder to get people excited or enthused about the future and where we want to see it going."
Pat Breen feels the work of Dunford has been hugely valuable, but that he has consistently been starved of funding and development opportunities. "What he has published in relation to the area has been accepted as first-rate," says Breen. "He has done a huge amount of work in the areas of conservation and sustainability. Yet, he is not helped by minister after minister coming down to the area promising the sun, moon and stars and then there is no follow-up in relation to the visits."
Dunford shares the assessment that there is a disparate nature to the work being undertaken in the Burren, and points out that the region is facing increased pressure from changing farming practices, increased tourism and inappropriate development. Government leadership must be shown at this juncture, he argues, or those issues will continue to manifest and threaten the environmental integrity of the region.
"There are some very good projects here," he says. "Burren Life is all about farming and conservation. Burren Connect has to do with tourism and conservation. Burren Beo is about information, and so on. These projects in themselves are doing really good work, but there is a need for a more strategic and inclusive approach. There is a need to bring together all these streams. Currently we're not seeing that and the area is suffering."
In all of this, it's worth bearing in mind that the Burren National Park represents only 5 per cent of the overall land area of the Burren. If that 5 per cent can't be delivered efficiently through Government policy, as locals are now arguing, then how can the rest of the area be expected to assert itself in a sustainable and environmentally sensitive fashion?
Recently there have been calls for Unesco World Heritage Site status to be given to the area. Again, it seems, past lessons have not been learned, and these calls have failed to take account of the major stakeholders in the region, the locals.
"The complication with all these calls," says Gerard Kennedy, "is that from a local perspective there are always restrictions to being named with any of those headings. What locals will want to know is how would such a designation restrict normal work practices, and how will their lives be affected."
Whether or not a desire exists to ask those questions is perhaps the biggest challenge now facing this uniquely individual terrain.