Rezoning, the scourge of Dublin in the 1990s, has moved out of town. Paul Cullen reports on a burning controversy in a village 50 miles from the GPO
It is a wet Tuesday night in Delvin, Co Westmeath, and the local courthouse is packed with villagers. Normally, meetings of the local development committee are quiet affairs attended by a few hardworking souls trying to bring jobs to the area, but tonight it's different.
The three public representatives for the area, including Fianna Fáil TD and councillor Donie Cassidy, have come to talk about the development of an industrial park. But the crowd has other things on its mind.
This sleepy village of about 500 people has been buzzing since news emerged last month of the rezoning of 60 acres of local farmland for housing. Within a few years, Devlin could have a population of 4,000, most of it in two urban-style housing estates about one kilometre away, on different sides of the village.
Then there's the question of the ownership of the rezoned land. Long-time Fianna Fáil councillor P.J. O'Shaughnessy owns one parcel on the Mullingar road and the other, on the Castlepollard road, is owned by Pat Cogan, former election agent of Fine Gael councillor Frank McDermott.
The decision, taken by councillors Cassidy and McDermott with O'Shaughnessy declaring his interest and abstaining, has divided the village. This rezoning, which was confirmed by Westmeath County Council, went against the recommendations of county manager, Ann McGuinness, and council planners.
The staunchest critics of the plan include the most recent arrivals: people who have moved from Dublin for the peace and quiet and now see the city chasing them across the country. On the other side, many of those who support the rezoning are traditional farmers who would have little in common with the residents of any housing estate that might be built.
It also highlights the Hobson's choice faced by many villages on the fringes of urban settlement - to grow like Topsy, or atrophy and die.
Throughout Leinster, large housing estates are springing up on the outskirts of established villages, as high house prices push commuters ever further from Dublin.
"Why were the wishes of the county manager and the planners overridden in the rezoning of the two pieces of land outside the village?" local resident, Dermot Ó hUallacháin demands to know at last week's meeting. "It will be hard enough providing jobs for the 2,000 people the planners envisage in their plan, without trying to do this for 4,000 people. It doesn't look right - it's like a nine-bob note," he declares in a flat London accent.
Ronan Leonard of the Delvin Housing and Industrial Development Committee tells me the rezoning is ridiculous. "It will ruin the character of the place. We'll have two huge housing estates either side of the village, so Delvin will become a dormer town for Dublin."
Between them, Cassidy and McDermott explain why they rezoned the land: Delvin is dying on its feet; it needs to grow; the Department of the Environment is offering money for a sewerage scheme, but the village has to raise 60 per cent of the cost and this can only be achieved by levying fees on a large-scale development, rather than once-off housing.
The tensions between the locals and the "blow-ins" are ill-concealed.
"I reared a family in this town and every one had to leave to get work," says a man in a cloth cap at the back of the hall. "And now I hear a lot of fellas blowing their coal and I have never seen them before."
Another elderly man, referring to Ó hUallacháin, says: "I don't know who this man is. His name is not on the register of electors. Is he a member of An Taisce?"
Ó hUallacháin assures the hall that he isn't from An Taisce, and goes on to point out that although he was born in London and he is a "recent arrival", his grandfather was "out in 1916" and his father fought the Black and Tans.
At this point, it's starting to sound like something from The Valley of the Squinting Windows, written by local author Brinsley MacNamara about the people of Delvin. Sheridan's account of begrudgery Irish-style caused a furore when it was published in 1918.
In any case, it's a pity the county council hasn't sent a representative to defend its plan for the village, which envisages orderly and sustainable development from the centre out. According to the planners, Delvin already has plenty of building land available for future growth.
But the politicians say they know the local situation better than the planners. People in the village don't want houses built nearby and people outside the village don't want to sell their land for development - aside from the two rezoned parcels.
"We've had consultants and proposals already in 1988 and 1994 and what did they do for Delvin? Either we do things for ourselves or the people come in from England to do things for us," says Cassidy, best known for his promotion of country music.
"But at least the consultants were independent of a political party," someone responds.
An examination of the minutes of meetings of the Coole electoral area - which includes Delvin - shows that O'Shaughnessy himself was the first person to suggest that the land he owned be rezoned. At a meeting on October 9th, 2001, he requested "further residential rezoning on the Mullingar road out as far as the GAA pitch, on both sides of the road". This covers the area where he owns land. A senior Westmeath County Council official told that meeting that zoning such a large area would be "inconsistent".
He pointed out that Delvin's population was 400, but existing planning permission and rezoning proposals already allowed for an increase to 1,400.
O'Shaughnessy, a former chairman of Westmeath County Council, then requested that the zoning be extended to the west side of the N52 (the Mullingar road).
The village plan produced by the planners did not provide for the rezoning of this land, or another parcel north of the village. Last August, however, the two parcels were rezoned on the vote of O'Shaughnessy's two council colleagues in the Coole area. This decision was confirmed a month later by Westmeath County Council.
Attempts to contact O'Shaughnessy by telephone over recent weeks were unsuccessful. When I asked him at Tuesday's meeting about the rezoning, Cassidy and MacDermott intervened to speak on his behalf.
When I questioned O'Shaughnessy after the meeting, he said that he was only one of three or four landowners whose property had been rezoned. However, the land owned by O'Shaughnessy and Cogan were the only parcels rezoned after the planners drew up the draft village plan.
Cassidy says he doesn't want Delvin to turn into "a wilderness" and he told The Irish Times last month that the village population had declined by 11 per cent in the past five years. But local residents have dismissed his claims. "This is rubbish. Our population is growing, and the school roll has increased by 42 per cent over this period," says local resident Stella Allen.
According to this year's Government census, the population of Delvin has increased from 524 in 1996 to 558.
It isn't just the planners who opposed the rezoning. Speakers at Tuesday's meeting point out that an earlier public meeting had voted against the rezoning, but the politicians present say they had not been told about this outcome.
But what galls many of those at the meeting is the fact that they have been refused planning permission to build single houses when the green light is being given for whole housing estates.
It's a story familiar throughout the Republic. One man wants to know why he has to live in a house for five years before he can sell it. A woman complains that she hasn't been allowed build a house on the main road. Another woman is angry that her planning application was opposed by the planners and the three local politicians.
While the farmland around Delvin is rich, the main street of the village betrays the stagnation of the area. Rival population centres such as Mullingar and Athboy are growing fast, inspiring a mix of envy and dread in the villagers, but Delvin has not managed to attract industry or retail development.
"Let's face it, the IDA don't give a fiddler's about Delvin," says McDermott.
The village is developing a group of small industrial units, but there's no great optimism that they will be filled.
In this context, housing is being offered as the only prospect for rapid growth. Jobs, however, will always be somewhere else.
Who's who
P.J. O'Shaughnessy
Fianna Fáil councillor who owns one parcel of the rezoned land. He declared his interest and abstained in the vote on rezoning.
Donie Cassidy
Fianna Fáil TD and councillor who voted in favour of rezoning.
Frank McDermott
Fine Gael councillor who voted in favour of rezoning.
Pat Cogan
Former election agent of the Fine Gael councillor, Frank McDermott. He owns a parcel of the rezoned land.