West coast islands such as Galway's Inishbofin and Mayo's Clare could have air links early in the new millennium following Galway County Council's decision to grant planning permission for an airstrip in Clifden.
The planning approval also closes a long chapter in the saga of Roundstone Bog. The bog has been at the centre of a 10-year battle by environmentalists to protect its unique habitat.
Now, through the diplomatic intervention of the Minister of State with responsibility for the islands, Mr Eamon O Cuiv, a less controversial site has been earmarked for the airstrip mooted by the Clifden and West Connemara Airport Development Company.
The company, involving local entrepreneurs such as Paul Hughes of Clifden's Abbeyglen Hotel and Cllr J.J. Mannion, made its first attempt over a decade ago. It proposed to build on Roundstone Bog at Ardagh, south of Clifden.
The refusal of planning permission by Galway County Council resulted in High Court and Supreme Court hearings, which questioned the legality of the State's conservation measures, then known as Areas of Scientific Interest (ASI).
The plan was resurrected over a year ago when a new site at Derrygimlagh was earmarked. Unusually, Mr O Cuiv's own department proposed that the area at Derrygimlagh owned by the State might be exchanged with the airport company for its original site near the famous Alcock and Brown landing area. This backfired badly; although Derrygimlagh was not within the new protection zone - the Special Area of Conservation (SAC) which replaced the ASI - it bordered on it.
Submissions were invited, a plan for Roundstone Bog was commissioned; and, as old rifts threatened to surface within the community, the company was advised to look elsewhere. The chosen site near Cleggan crossroads in the townland of Cloonlaghtanabba is not regarded as sensitive. The permission for an airstrip similar to that used by Aer Arann at Inverin is not expected to be appealed by Mr Tim Robinson of the Save the Roundstone Bog campaign.
The permission includes development of an airstrip and apron and outline approval for a one-storey terminal building on the 40-acre site. The company will seek State support for the development.