It has been accused of succumbing to "holiday home blight", but Courtown Harbour is fighting to restore its reputation.
For decades, its scenic location and proximity to Dublin has made the Wexford village one of Ireland's most popular holiday destinations. Even last year, during the foot-and-mouth crisis that damaged the tourism industry, Courtown continued to attract visitors by the thousand.
Its image has suffered, however, because of criticism of a policy that allowed 1,500 holiday homes to be built in the area over 18 months in the late 1990s under a tax incentive scheme for seaside resorts.
Local business leaders accept the houses were built before the infrastructure was there to support them, but they say Wexford County Council was right to avail of the tax scheme while it was available.
Now the infrastructure that was missing is being put in place. A new €15 million drainage scheme is to be in operation from next month, which should put an end to water shortages, particularly at peak holiday periods.
While talk of a new drainage scheme may not entice visitors to the area, the type of facility being put in place by the Gorey Courtown Forest Park company undoubtedly will.
An impressive leisure centre and swimming pool, developed by the company, was officially opened last Friday by the Minister of State for the Marine, Mr Hugh Byrne. Work on a second phase, to include a family entertainment centre, is to begin shortly.
The €7 million facility is testimony to what can be achieved by dedicated, voluntary effort. The forest park company has only one paid employee, Mr Pat O'Donnell, and is run by a team of volunteers from the business community. They set up the group in the late 1980s and, with assistance from the county council, bought 60 acres of woodland from the State. After dropping an initial plan for an outdoor adventure park, they decided Courtown needed a facility that was not weather-dependent. When Courtown obtained tax-incentive status, they received planning permission to build 73 holiday homes on 20 acres of the site.
That raised €4.5 million, which was used towards developing the leisure centre. Woodland amenity walks have been developed on the site and in adjacent areas.
Another voluntary group, the Courtown Community Council, has been engaged in a range of measures, including the development of a 140-metre seaside promenade and clean-up of a stretch of the Breanogue river.
The chairman of the council, Mr Declan Dunbar, rejects the criticism of those who say the proliferation of holiday homes has damaged the area. He disagreed strongly with the views expressed by this newspaper's environment editor, Frank McDonald, who in 1999 wrote that the tax scheme had turned the village into a "visual and environmental slum".
"I didn't think it was fair criticism and I said so," Mr Dunbar said. There were also critics in the area, he acknowledged, but "in every village in Ireland there are critics. Knockers, who do nothing only criticise."
Mr Dunbar is certainly not in that category. He has a meeting with Wexford County Council next week, for which there are 30 items on the agenda, from the need for footpath repairs to new railings.
Whatever the critics might have said in the past, Courtown continues to thrive. The foot-and-mouth crisis initially hit visitor numbers last year, but ultimately it benefited from the decision of many people not to travel to Britain but to holiday at home instead.
It is also getting more foreign visitors than ever before.
"Four or five years ago the main accommodation was mobile homes," according to Mr Donal O'Gorman, a guesthouse owner and chairman of Gorey Courtown Forest Park. "Now we have a good accommodation base. Most of the holiday homes are of a very good standard, and we have the hotels and restaurants to service them, so we can make the season stretch. People are staying open longer and there are spin-off effects for everyone."
