Setback likely for Burren visitor strategy

Plans to implement a long-awaited visitor management strategy for the Burren in Co Clare received a setback yesterday.

This follows indications that Clare County Council has failed to secure EU LIFE funding to carry out a programme entitled "The Integration of Sustainable Tourism, Agriculture and Environment in the Burren".

In the absence of any State move to address the future of the Burren, the council moved earlier this year to secure €800,000 in funding to put the plan in place.

However, the council's head of economic development, Mr Ger Dollard, said yesterday: "The indications we are getting from the Department of the Environment is that under the preliminary assessment of the application, it is unlikely to come through positively.

"There is no doubt that it is a very worthy project, but the particular criteria on which it was being judged focused on innovation, and with the proposal involving improving traffic flows and signage in the area, that would not have scored highly in relation to innovation."

The plan's proposals included putting in place a tourism management strategy with specific focus on development of a traffic management and signage plan. It also involved managing two flagship projects at sites of high tourism pressure to demonstrate best practice in relation to visitor management, heritage and landscape conservation.

The author of Farming and the Burren, Dr Brendan Dunford, expressed his disappointment yesterday at the anticipated negative decision by the EU LIFE programme.

"The protection of a landscape as unique and diverse as the Burren will cost money, now a scarce commodity nationally, so the EU LIFE fund does represent a particularly important resource.

"We must try again, but to be successful we will require the full commitment and co-operation of all local management agencies, and the input and support of the people on the ground."

Dr Dunford said the proposal has great merit. "First of all, it is an integrated approach, and secondly it seeks to implement a lot of the findings from the various reports carried out in relation to the Burren over the years. These reports were carried out at great expense, but very little was done with them."

However, Mr Dollard said "because of the likelihood of a negative decision, the council has been working with the Clare Tourist Council and Shannon Development in a small way to address some of the issues and try to make progress".

Through this process, the council has taken the first steps in putting in place a visitor management strategy with the erection of visitor signage on all the main entry points to the Burren.

Yesterday, the manager of the Burren Centre in Kilfenora, Mr Paddy Maher, welcomed the initiative, pointing out that prior to the signs being erected some tourists did not realise that they were in the Burren.

"It is great to see that the signs have been erected at the entry points because the situation up until now was crazy. It is very, very important that this action is followed up by other actions that will represent a coherent visitor management strategy for the Burren."

Mr Dollard said the provision of the signs "is a first step in improving on the present situation, and increasing awareness of this very important area".

However, no moves are being made to address the issue of access to the State-owned Burren National Park, which Mr Tony Killeen TD described yesterday as "an extraordinary situation".

"This clearly militates against the protection of the Burren and its development as a tourist product. The current situation is opening the Burren to all kinds of damage where there is no means to regulate access."