February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — After a marathon decade-long planning battle that was fought to the Supreme Court and back, a proposal for a controversial visitor center for the famous Burren area at Mullaghmore, Co. Clare, has finally been shot down by the Planning Board.
Arts and Heritage Minister Sile de Valera — who is a TD for the Clare constituency — said she was disappointed by the decision, but it was warmly welcomed by environmental groups.
The Burren Action Group, which has campaigned against the center, described it as a "wonderful victory" and said the ruling vindicated its stand.
The row about the proposal has cost millions.
In one landmark legal ruling, the government’s Office of Public Works — now known as Duchas — was forced to apply for planning permission for all its developments.
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The center was considerably scaled down from the original proposal, but the planning board even rejected that, saying it would be damaging to the fragile environment and habitats of the Burren and bring obtrusive traffic to the area.
It represented an unacceptable degradation of the physical environment "in this area of outstanding landscape quality and would detract from the scenery and rural character of the area," the board said.
The board also said it would be located on a site within a relatively remote and undeveloped part of the Burren, which contains a significant number of habitats.
The 50-square-mile Burren, with its terraces of bare limestone, is unique and has been made a national park. It has underground caves and streams and shelters many rare flora and species. It also contains dolmens, wedge-gallery graves, forts and crosses.
It appears, however, that the issue is not finished.
De Valera said the board referred to Mullaghmore being the core area of the national park and she said she is now going to contact the County Council to see what other potential sites might be available for a center.
She said a center was important both for educational purposes and to promote the area to tourists.