Duchas criticised by golf complex opponents

DUCHAS, the Heritage Service, was yesterday accused of appearing to facilitate the development of a contentious £12.5 million golf complex proposed for Doonbeg, Co Clare.

The environmental network Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE), along with An Taisce, yesterday appealed Clare County Council's decision to grant planning permission for the Greg Norman-designed golf course to An Bord Pleanala. FIE's claims about Duchas relate to the reduction of the proposed Special Area of Conservation (SAC) at the site from 377 acres to 51 acres following a request from the developers, Irish National Golf Club Ltd. The reduction allowed the company to lodge a planning application last May for the development which includes a 51bedroom hotel and 80 holiday homes.

FIE claims, following an examination of Duchas's internal files, that no study was commissioned to justify the significant reduction of the proposed SAC.

An FIE spokesman said: "The Minister for Arts and Heritage, Ms de Valera, must no longer permit changes to boundaries of areas identified as potential SACs without public notice of the scientific reasons and an opportunity for the public to make representations."

Supporting its claims that no development should take place, FIE quotes correspondence from Duchas to Clare County Council in October 1995. It says: "The site is the only remaining relatively intact dune system in Co Clare, and the only dune of conservation interest remaining between Inch, Co Kerry, and Dog's Bay, Co Galway."

Despite this statement and a further letter from Duchas to Shannon Development on October 23rd, 1995, stating that Duchas would "strongly object to the development of a golf course on the intact areas of this dune system", Duchas did not formally object to the development.

Explaining why it did not object, a Duchas statement said: "No objections were raised by Duchas because there were no scientific grounds for raising them."

Duchas says the initial boundary was drawn in April 1997, "as a result of an aerial photograph". After a site inspection in November 1997, the boundaries were redrawn based on scientific evidence.