The people of Ballyvaughan, Co Clare, are understandably exercised about proposals to build a hotel and 60 holiday homes - valued at £6 million - in their picturesque village. There are concerns that the infrastructure of the village (Population: 250) will be unable to cope with the development; there are more general concerns that the genteel character of the village - nestled between the Burren and Galway Bay - will be affected by a dramatic surge in tourist numbers.
The residents of Ballyvaughan are not alone in their concerns. Along the west coast, people in Kilkee, Co Clare, and on Achill Island, have expressed broadly similar concerns about the upsurge in development activity. There are more general concerns that the Seaside Resort Scheme - the tax incentive scheme used to encourage investors into areas like Kilkee, Achill and 13 other resorts - is now threatening the fabric of many rural communities.
The Seaside Resort Renewal Scheme, introduced in the Budget three years ago, is not without merit. It has helped to provide some high quality self-catering tourist accommodation in areas where this was conspicuously absent. It has helped to give some dilapidated seaside resorts a badly-needed coat of paint. And it has injected significant new money into the local economies.
But there has been growing evidence of local concerns about the surge in development. A planning review group in Kilkee claimed last month that the resort scheme - which has helped to attract three separate multi-million pound holiday home developments - has been blamed for "jeopardising all the attributes that have made Kilkee of world renown as a quality tourist destination." A planning hearing in relation to a proposed development at Achill heard claims that further development would affect the social and physical environment. Concerns were raised that the holiday village at Enniscrone, Co Sligo, would "take away the essence of the rural district." There have been more practical concerns. In many areas property prices have moved beyond the reach of many locals as they keep pace with the holiday homes - many priced at over £90,000. Indeed, it often appears that the price of the holiday homes bears little relation to the costs involved but are inflated artificially because of the availability of State tax breaks. The success of the resort scheme is also having a negative effect, drawing the developers into small rural communities like Ballyvaughan which do not enjoy a tax designation.
The resort scheme has been extended to June, 1999, for developments which are already in the pipeline, although the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation, to its credit, has embarked on a review of it. There is a need to take stock. Some of the holiday home developments are now comparable in scale to suburban housing estates. And while the scheme has yielded great benefits for developers and investors seeking a tax shelter, it is timely to assess its likely long-term effects. Father Harry Bohan, of Rural Resource Development, is surely correct when he says that the development needs of the present must not be allowed to compromise the future.