The Government has failed to find alternative visitor facilities for the national park, despite agreeing to do so, writes Gordon Deegan
The Government was accused yesterday of "turning its back and forgetting about the Burren National Park" after losing the long-running battle to locate a visitor centre in the park at Mullaghmore.
One of Ireland's best-known environmentalists, Prof Emer Colleran of National University of Ireland, Galway, made the charge as it emerged the State has not located alternative visitor facilities, despite undertakings made after An Bord Pleanála's decision three years ago to refuse planning permission for the Mullaghmore centre.
Fianna Fáil TD Mr Tony Killeen, who lives on the border of the national park, said it is a dismal blow to tourism in the Burren not to have meaningful access to the park.
Shortly after An Bord Pleanála's decision in March 2000, a spokesman for the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands said it was "a priority for the department to provide appropriate facilities for public access to the Burren National Park". The department had opened exploratory talks with Clare County Council on the matter, he said. Tenders were also invited from consultants to identify alternative options for visitor facilities.
However, it has now emerged that the contract was never issued and the process has come a halt as it is being reviewed as part of the wider review of the National Development Plan.
A Dúchas spokesman said: "There are no current proposals to provide visitor facilities of any description for the Burren National Park and no decision has been made as to whether to progress with the tendering process."
As a member of the Burren Action Group, Prof Colleran was of one of the leading opponents to the plan to locate visitor facilities at Mullaghmore. "The purpose of opposing the Mullaghmore plan was not to prevent facilities for the Burren National Park; it was to prevent facilities being located at that specific location.
"It seems now crazy from both an educational and tourism point of view not to have facilities for the park which is a valuable State asset.
"After 10 years of consultation, of countless consultants' reports on the Burren, is there anything happening? No, and given the importance of the Burren, that is a shame." She said with the Government having spent so much money on trying to develop a facility "it appears that after being beaten on the Burren visitor centre, they have turned their backs and forgotten about the area, which is a pity".
Located eight miles away from Mullaghmore is the Burren's only interpretative centre in the village of Kilfenora. Last year, it attracted 30,000 visitors, but its manager, Mr Paddy Maher, said in the current climate it was a battle to reach that figure. He said the key to protecting the Burren landscape and making the area more attractive to tourists is visitor management.
However, "visitor management in the Burren is abysmal. The sign- posting is non-existent. You have people coming to the centre here who say 'we drove past the Poulnabrone dolmen before we realised it was there'.
Author of the recently published Farming and the Burren, Dr Brendan Dunford said: "The real tragedy of Mullaghmore was the division it caused within the region, and the fact that attention was, and still is, diverted from the broader Burren region, and the very urgent management issues that arise there.
"With all the focus on Mullaghmore, the real wealth of heritage of the Burren - and its custodians, the farmers - has been neglected. It's well time to move on, move on in a more integrated and inclusive fashion."