This article is from page 2 of the 2006-07-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
AN TAISCE has a real problem on its hands if it doesn’t address the lack of control it has on its local associations, according to west Clare-based senator, Brendan Daly (FF). He was speaking after An Taisce was forced into an embarrassing u-turn, following the description of a planned house extension by journalist Fintan O’Toole as ‘criminal’.
It emerged that the objection and the language used were those of the Clare Association of An Taisce and were made without the knowledge or prior approval of An Taisce’s Head Office.
Senator Daly said, “I am glad that An Taisce withdrew the objection, but the episode shows the lack of control An Taisce has on its local associations. This type of conduct in relation to the Fintan O’Toole planning application only undermines the credibility of An Taisce and damages the organisation.”
In the Seanad, Senator Daly said, “An Taisce has made life very difficult for many people, particularly people living in the Burren. It is showing the same face to Mr. O’Toole that it has shown to all ordinary decent people in north Clare, whom it has harassed and made miserable over the last number of years.”
Leader of the Seanad, Senator Mary O’Rourke (FF), commented, “If it had four feet, An Taisce would have shot itself in them”, while Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú (FF) said that the preposterous language used in the objection showed a darker side to An Taisce.
In Clare, Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) pointed out that An Taisce’s Heritage Officer, Ian Lumley, was barred last year from acting as a director of certain companies for five years.
This followed a hearing in the High Court into the liquidation of a limited company, Lancefort Ltd, which Lumley co-founded to campaign on environmental issues.
“I would be very alarmed at someone who is an employee of An Taisce being involved in a company that has objected to developments,” he said.
MEP Marian Harkin (Ind) said the controversy had highlighted the existence of an extreme element in An Taisce.
“This is an organisation which needed to re-balance itself if it was not to devalue its role across a range of environment and heritage issues,” said the MEP who is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Clare-based Irish Rural Dwellers Association (IRDA).
“Fintan O’Toole, a strong critic of the IRDA and with an unsympathetic attitude to rural dwellers, might learn a lesson from his current planning problems and have a little more sympathy with the aspirations and needs of people to live in rural areas,” she said. Ms Harkin also welcomed proposals to allow IRDA, representation on An Bord Pleanála.
In 2005, An Taisce made 852 submissions last year on planning matters in Claer. The council received 2,491 planning applications.