A new Irish environmental group has issued a circular to local authorities challenging statements made by a senior official at the Department of the Environment during last Friday's convention in Dublin to review planning laws.
Mr Feargal O Coigligh, assistant principal officer at the Department's planning division, said local authorities would have to pay out compensation if they refused planning permission for developments in Special Areas of Conservation (SACs).
Mr O Coigligh believed decisions to refuse permission would have to rely on one or other of the "non-compensatable" grounds provided for under the planning Acts. This was immediately disputed by Dr Sara Dillon and Mr Tony Lowes, who have set up the new organisation, Friends of the Irish Environment, to monitor the implementation in Ireland of EU environmental laws.
They say local authority representatives attending the convention would have left with the impression that they ran the risk of having to pay compensation for refusing permission for developments in SACs.
In the circular to planners, they point out that under the EU Habitats Directive it is no longer open to decision-makers to grant permission for developments which would damage SACs.
"As it is thus against the law to grant such permissions, there can be no possible basis for paying compensation," they maintain. Compensation would only be due to landowners whose existing operations would be affected by the new designations.
Meanwhile, Friends of the Irish Environment has lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission against Shannon Development's £12 million golf course and leisure centre on a designated SAC at White Strand, Doonbeg, Co Clare. This project is scheduled to receive £2 million under the EU-funded tourism programme. FIE maintains it would irreparably damage a major sand dunes system.
