The latest drama in the habitats saga seems about to unfold at White Strand, near Doonbeg, Co Clare, where a US developer is planning a £12 million "world-class leisure and golf links resort", including two 18-hole golf courses, a 90-bedroom hotel and leisure centre, holiday cottages and permanent homes.
"The development in question is to cover 377 acres of pristine marine landscape in west Clare, the sort of truly unspoiled area that is becoming so rare in Ireland," according to Friends of the Irish Environment. "Needless to say, a scheme of this scale would alter the character of the immediate area for ever."
The Doonbeg project, which is promoted by Shannon Development, has been approved for £2.4 million in EU funding under the Operational Programme for Tourism. Yet until recently it was part of a designated SAC, notified to the European Commission in April 1997 as an area deserving the highest conservation status.
"So we have the extraordinary situation of European money for tourism financing an American company for purposes of a development which is highly questionable in terms of European environmental law," FIE says in a briefing document, which accuses the National Parks and Wildlife Service of backtracking on the SAC designation.
Although its own reports on Doonbeg dating back to 1993 described the dune system as "largely intact", the NPWS now maintains the site of the proposed golf links has been "degraded" by overgrazing and sand removal over the years. FIE believes this change of tune resulted from pressure to permit the site to be developed as a golf resort.
"At some point, in a manner not yet clear to us but which must be clarified by the authorities, the NPWS had contact with the golf course developers," said Tony Lowes, a cofounder of FIE. "We have asked for and been refused this correspondence and have now presented our request for this information under the Freedom of Information Act."
Meanwhile, the Heritage Council has published a detailed scientific report on Doonbeg, which states that the dunes at White Strand are of considerable scientific interest and should be retained as an SAC. In addition, it says, there is "an onus on the Irish Government to protect, preserve and/or rehabilitate this priority habitat".
An Taisce has also questioned whether a hotel and golf-led leisure complex would be appropriate in such a sensitive location as Doonbeg. "It is our contention that such a development should more appropriately be located elsewhere in a more robust environment and preferably within or adjacent to an existing settlement."
Ms Karin Dubsky, co-ordinator of Coastwatch Europe, said Ireland had lost half its sand dunes in the last 10 years. "Golf courses can be built anywhere, but sand dunes need a special combination of sea, land and water. To build a golf course at Doonbeg would be to amputate a vital part of one of the last great Irish sand dune systems."
But the Minister for Tourism, Dr McDaid, had no such qualms last November when he announced EU funding for the project, which is being planned by Landmark National, of Columbus, Ohio. He described the scheme as "a powerhouse for west coast tourism", saying the golf links had been identified as a major growth attraction in Ireland.
Dr McDaid said Landmark National had a particularly strong record in developing world-class golf resorts in environmentally sensitive locations, such as Kiawah Island, in South Carolina, which hosted the Ryder Cup in 1991. The Doonbeg site had also been identified by golf design experts as being very suitable for such a development.
If the Minister was aware of environmental concerns, he didn't let on. Indeed, within weeks, he cited research which suggested there was "no overall crisis in relation to tourism and the environment in Ireland". As he saw it, "environmental concerns are much more relevant in the areas of agriculture, industry, transport and waste".
According to Tony Lowes, this statement, made at a function to inaugurate a £3 million pilot programme on Tourism and the Environment, revealed the depths of the Government's misunderstanding of the situation. And in what he saw as "the ultimate irony", purely environmental projects are excluded from the pilot programme.
The types of "practical demonstration projects" which the Minister has in mind are visitor-management schemes at individual sites, new traffic-management systems in town-centre areas, commercial coach-parking and litter-control schemes. Yet it is doubtful if there would be any pilot programme at all without the European Union's 75 per cent funding.
All Dr McDaid is prepared to concede is that there are indications that peak-season congestion is becoming an issue in areas such as the Ring of Kerry, the Dingle Peninsula and Connemara, as well as major tourism sites like the Cliffs of Moher, Glendalough and Newgrange "where visitor numbers are soaring."
"In addition, we have ecologically unique and sensitive areas which, while visitor numbers may not be very large at the moment, may also in the future be at risk. Areas such as the Burren, the Wicklow Mountains and coastal areas with dunes come to mind," he said.
Did the proposed development at Doonbeg not occur to him in this context?