Madam, - Minister Dick Roche wants consistency from An Taisce. In an aggressive August 2002 press release he said An Taisce's credibility depended on its appealing schemes in Powerscourt. An Taisce appealed the schemes and overturned them. Yet the Minister himself inconsistently continues to attack An Taisce over the issue (letters March 25th). He is pleased the schemes were stopped yet inconsistently would close down the organisation that stopped them. Inconsistently too he did not appeal them himself or object to his Fianna Fáil party colleagues in Wicklow County Council voting for them.
He asks why An Taisce did not appeal other developments in Powerscourt. As he knows, the reason is that some years ago An Taisce in Wicklow was taken over by development and quarrying interests, including prominent members of Fianna Fáil, Mr Roche's council colleagues, who ensured An Taisce objected to nothing important in Wicklow for a while. As a result the Wicklow Association of An Taisce was wound up by An Taisce nationally. It was dormant when the damage was done to Powerscourt.
As part of long-standing local and national attacks on An Taisce's independence, two of Mr Roche's cabinet colleagues, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, and the Minister for Community and Rural Affairs, Mr Ó Cuív, have condemned An Taisce for not granting membership to five applicants in 2002. These members had links with one-off holiday-housing developers and in most cases sought to nominate such developers and each other to An Taisce's council. According to The Irish Times, one of them was subsequently convicted of illegal dumping. The reason for rejecting the applications is that An Taisce's 52-person county-based council was trying to guarantee consistency. After the Wicklow takeover by Mr Roche's colleagues, An Taisce learnt the lesson that it cannot take the risk of having active members who do not apply An Taisce policies.
Mr Roche accuses An Taisce of failing to object to big developments. This is inconsistent. When I was chairman of An Taisce (I am not now involved), Minister Cullen made it clear that his problem was with An Taisce's objections to just such developments.
From important particular developments such as Carnsore Point, the original Spencer Dock scheme, the road near Tara and the Corrib Gas scheme; to important negative patterns such as the phenomenon of 60-70 per cent one-off housing in most rural counties and the inconsistency between this Government's policy and its practice on spatial strategy generally, An Taisce, despite its underfunding and understaffing, has a proud, practical record as an independent watchdog. Mr Roche's Government, in contrast, has an embarrassing record on planning and the environment. Nor does it tolerate independent environmental views. It has closed down Dúchas, eviscerated the Heritage Council and, to the dismay of the EU, failed properly to fund environmental NGOs. Mr Roche seeks to have An Taisce shut down (or "reconstituted" as he calls it). An Taisce strives for consistency against the background of its resource limitations and the extraordinarily testing phenomenon of 70,000 planning applications being decided annually. I'm sure An Taisce will not be bullied by Ministers who seek not its consistency but its silence. - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL SMITH, Ormond Quay Upper, Dublin 7.