This article is from page 6 of the 2006-02-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
A PLAN to develop Ireland’s first full-scale retirement village accommodating up to 300 residents outside Clarecastle has come under fire from An Taisce.
Last December, the Dublin-based Master Group announced the village, costing €50 million. It would create over 100 jobs on 75 acres of grounds of the historic 18th-century Carnelly House, five miles from Ennis.
There would be 120 houses of various sizes, 35 apartments and a 64-bed retirement home. Village facilities would include a leisure centre with a 12-metre pool and a speciallyequipped gym.
The property was purchased for in excess of €3 million by the Master Group last year.
Objecting, An Taisce told Clare County Council that, “There is an ample network of towns and villages, including locations with good service provisions and public transport access for provision of retirement and nursing home locations in Clare, to meet the needs identified by the applicant without having to resort to development in an unsuitable, rural, unserviced location of the type proposed in this application.”
An Taisce’s Heritage Officer, Ian Lumley, has referred the Council “to a number of precedents by which nursing home schemes have been refused in rural unserviced locations, including two relevant refusal decisions by An Bord Pleanala”.
“Any planning application which changes the use and planning status of Carnelly to an institutional one, no matter how well-designed or sensitive, can only be regarded as regrettable,” said Mr Lumley.
An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) has been lodged with the application. However, Mr Lumley states, “We submit that the argument being put forward by the consultants in the EIS on location suitability is untenable.
“The effect of the proposal would be to bring an elderly population into an unserviced, non-public transport-accessible rural area, without addressing where the employees in the proposed development, who are stated to be 104, would live.
“An increasing number of employees in nursing homes in Ireland are from the Philippines and other nonEU countries, who would be on low incomes and not car owners. Nursing homes, where possible, should be located close to centres of population with easy access both for staff and visitors.
Mr Lumley states that the claim under the EIS that there are no alternative sites “is absurd, given the level of zoned land in Clarecastle, Ennis and other parts of Clare”.