Madam, – By now I thought the witch hunt would be over. But it’s not. Local county councillors continue to label An Taisce as a secret society (Home News, May 17th).
Cllr Joe Cooney’s (Fine Gael, Clare County Council) motion to delist An Taisce under planning legislation is a throwback to the good old days of the Celtic Tiger. Such mindless bleating offered an easy scapegoat for many local and national politicians and their developer friends as they mauled this country with their unsustainable developments.
If anything, I believe the political parties collectively owe An Taisce an apology. Throughout the Celtic Tiger An Taisce stood alone as an unpaid “prescribed body” under planning legislation working for government to help safeguard the Irish environment against the excesses of development. In hindsight it’s clear that An Taisce was right in many of its objections to the extremes of that crazy period and we should be thanking it for its exceptional public service.
The truth is that the Irish government invited An Taisce to offer feedback on the planning process through legislation and then blames the messenger.
The message from An Taisce has been clear and consistent. A substantial amount of development and planning in Ireland over the Celtic Tiger period was unsustainable, ill-thought-out, and contravened best planning practice.
With regard to the contentious issue of one-off housing, it’s an easy score for county councillors to blame An Taisce. But just look at one indicator: groundwater. The EPA reported in 2005 that poorly designed, located and installed septic tank wastewater treatment systems have resulted in contamination of groundwater, rivers and streams. Surely for this reason alone we should be listening to its message? – Yours, etc,