Green Party MEP Ms Patricia McKenna yesterday filed an additional complaint with the European Commission highlighting new evidence of orchid plants at the grey dune system in Doonbeg, Co Clare. This is where the Greg Norman-designed £12.5 million golf resort is under construction.
A Commission source stated yesterday that the information "is important and is something that we cannot ignore".
He confirmed that the European funding of £2.4 million earmarked for the project remains suspended following the Government's failure to date to redraw the proposed Special Area of Conservation (SAC).
Earlier this year, the Commission requested the Government to extend the boundary to cover the areas where the 2 mm protected snail, the vertigo angustior, is present.
The spokesman said the Commission generally accepts that the golf course is compatible with the snail's conservation. However, he said the arbitrary boundary places the implementation of the Habitats Directive by the Government in serious question.
The boundaries of the proposed conservation area had been substantially reduced, from 152 hectares in April 1997 to 89 hectares in April 1999. The new orchid evidence has been forwarded to the Government for a response.
In a second complaint, Ms McKenna is urging the Commission to further investigate the reduction of SAC boundaries and to ask the Irish authorities to revert to the original site designation as well as carry out further field surveys.
UCG lecturer Dr Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, who conducted the survey that discovered the orchid plants outside the boundary, said yesterday the presence of the orchids further undermined the arbitrary boundary of the SAC drawn by Duchas.
