This article is from page 17 of the 2006-11-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
RURAL Resettlement Ireland (RRI) is putting an end to its involvement in bringing new families to Clare.
The voluntary organisation, which has its base in Kilbaha in west Clare, lays the blame for the pull-out squarely with the planning section of Clare County Council.
Chairman of the organisation Jim Connolly said, “it has come to a very sticky end very quickly because of planning.”
He told The Clare People that RRI had not got planning permission in the county during the last 12 months for houses in areas of rural decline, making its role in the county impossible.
These homes had been earmarked for young families hoping to relocate to the county.
Rural Resettlement Ireland was set up 15 years ago to combat the dwindling population in the west of Ireland.
To date, the organisation has built 14 houses in rural Clare and bought and restored three more.
Mr Connolly said that receiving planning permission was proving more and more difficult.
He said RRI received “a 100 per cent refusal on its first five applications”.
The latest application for planning permission to build 11 houses was also refused at first he said, but the decision was changed in four of the cases.
As a result, the group has permission to build four houses in Tullycrine, an area suffering from population decline and where the school is fighting to keep its two teachers.
RRI had to buy the land for all 11 applications before it could apply for planning permission as a voluntary organisation.
The cost is then refunded by the Government, but only if the application is successful and the houses built. The cost of the refusals is therefore crippling the organisation according to its chairman.
Mr Connolly also maintains that his involvement in the rural planning lobby group – the Irish Dwellers Association – is also making him unpopular in planning circles.