Missing trees, question marks over an apparent signature on a treefelling licence and allegations of intimidation and near-blackmail are a volatile mixture. Their relationship to the proposed explosives factory at Kildysart, Co Clare, marks a new twist in the troubled planning application.
Several organisations have appealed to An Bord Pleanala against county council approval for the £5 million factory on the Shannon estuary. Mr Paddy Whelan of Shannon Explosives intends to manufacture commercial explosives for the construction industry. But on top of various appeals being made to An Bord Pleanala was a call by the Friends of the Irish Environment group for an investigation into the granting of a treefelling licence to cut down 2,400 trees in order to clear the proposed site for the factory.
The licence was granted two months after a forest-service inspector noted the "clear-felled area". According to the official forestry inspector's report, the "applicant pleaded ignorance of the requirement to have a felling licence".
Mr Whelan told The Irish Times up to 80 per cent of the site was wasteland, covered with shrubbery, hazel and briars.
The land was bought from Coillte for development and he had not realised a felling licence was required, he said. He said there were four objections to the proposed factory.
The application for a licence to fell 2,460 fir trees was apparently signed by Clare Fianna Fail councillor Mr P.J. Kelly on behalf of Shannon Explosives.
Mr Kelly admitted his name was entered in the "lodged by" column and that he lodged the application. But he did not sign the document, he said. Mr Kelly provided a sample of his signature in a footnote to a press release he issued this week and said he had had the same signature since he joined the local authority 27 years ago.
His friendship with Mr Whelan had, he said, been "the subject of innuendo, intimidation, near blackmail and a personal vendetta against me by a small minority opposed to the Whelan Group (Ennis) Ltd enterprise at Cahercon, Kildysart, Co Clare". Meanwhile, a Garda inspector is inquiring into which garda signed the felling notice application and whether the document was valid.