The company that owns most of the Great Blasket Island off the coast of west Kerry has been granted planning permission to build a café and a services building on the island.
The erection of the building, which will include a storage room for a tractor as well as wildlife ranger room and septic tank, is part of the conditions of sale of much of the property owned by An Blascaod Mór Teo to the Office of Public Works under an agreement reached this summer.
However, the decision by Kerry County Council to grant permission with conditions for the building is almost certain to be appealed to An Bord Pleanála. The appeals board turned down a similar application in 2005.
Eight submissions were made to Kerry County Council. Sue Redican, the Blasket Island weaver who has lived there for 20 years and also monitors the island's wildlife, said she feared the island would be exploited.
Other submissions called for the island, with its crumbling writers' buildings, not to be interfered with. The Great Blasket was the home of some of the best-known Irish language writers of the 20th century. An Taisce said the proposed building (330sq m) would be larger than any existing building and every effort should be made to disguise it.