Neighbours of a quarry that received a Gaeltacht grant even though it was located outside the qualifying area say that blasting and quarrying have continued even though the site does not have planning permission. Liam Reid reports.
Opposition politicians have sought a Department of the Environment investigation into how Galway County Council allowed work to continue at Welby's quarry near Moycullen, two years after it was found that planning permission was required.
Yesterday The Irish Times reported that the quarry received funding of £52,348 (€66,482) in 1998 from Údarás na Gaeltachta after the company incorrectly gave the quarry's address as a townland which qualifies for Gaeltacht funding.
The quarry, which is located at Ballinahaille, gave an address of Baile Doite. Údarás said it did not intend to pursue repayment of the grant because the company had made an "understandable and innocuous" error. The grant was used for a five-year lease of a stone-crushing machine.
Mr Ned Cusack, a retired Army colonel, said the blasts and quarrying at Welby's continued up to last week. Col Cusack, who lives less than 800 metres from the quarry, said the blasting was particularly a problem for locals.
"When the explosions go off, they shake the house and knock the pictures sideways on the walls," he said. He criticised Galway County Council, which he said failed to enforce the planning legislation properly.
The council had maintained during the late 1990s that planning permission was not required, because under quarrying and planning rules, quarries which existed before 1963 did not need planning permission. The council was also one of Welby's main customers.
In 2002, An Bord Pleanála rejected the council's opinion and found that the quarry was effectively dormant for much of the 1970s and 1980s and that operations had intensified at the site.
Meanwhile, the Green Party has called on the Department of the Environment to intervene in the case. The council has taken enforcement proceedings against the quarry, but these were put in abeyance after the company took High Court proceedings last year.
Mr Niall Ó Brollcháin, a Galway city councillor, said the county council had continually failed to ensure the quarry complied with planning law. He also asked why the operator had been allowed to keep the grant, despite it being "clear from the documentation I have seen that it is outside a Gaeltacht area".