An TaisceÂ’s heritage is not Irish, but British, says councillor

Turns out there’s an anti-Irish body at work who want to save British heritage, are “a member of An Bord Pleanála and a judge in their own cases”, and also ignore that “the people of Connemara need 3000sq ft houses if they are to survive”!!!
Wail ‘til hutton gets hold of these scourges of our countryfolk!

An Taisce’s heritage is not Irish, but British, says councillor

“This is harebrained situation. Who is funding these faceless individuals,” he said, while Cllr Seosaimh O Tuaririsg said that it was not right that An Taisce is a member of An Bord Pleanala and is therefore a judge in their own cases. — Declan Varley

http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/14945

Being the helpful sort, hutton has looked up the councillors concerned, and first off, leading the charge there’s Seamus Walsh.

Seamus is a member of Fianna Fail and looks like this:

Seamus’s declared interests state he is “Engineer WALSH ENGINEERING PREPARATION of MAPS, DRAWINGS, SURVEYING of SITES, Preparation of Banking Documents, CONSULTING WITH LAND OWNERS regarding PLANNING”.

Given Seamus is clearly a leading light planning professional, it is most odd that he didn’t for clarity correct the record when other elected officials advance off-the-wall goobledegook, such as An Taisce being part of An Bord Pleanála, and bizarre theories as to minimum spec requirements. Then again, Seamus may have already been too pre-occupied advancing his own beliefs “the heritage that An Taisce and such organisations is trying to protect when objecting to planning in Connemara is not Irish heritage, but British heritage”. And of course that “the people of Connemara need 3000sq ft houses if they are to survive” – but the “yuppies in Dublin” are trying to stop them – killing them, so they are!

Seamus is an elected councilor for Oughterard.
Oughterard is the largest town in Co. Galway allowing sewage to flow into Lough Corrib, from its out of date treatment plant.

Meanwhile Peter Feeney is a Fine Gael councilor from Athenry and looks like this:

Peter supported Seamus’s concerns, as he believes, “the eight-metre restriction affects the type of house that is designed can often lead to inefficiencies in heating etc”. Unlike Seamus who cites “PLANNING” on his declaration of interests, Peter appears to have no expertise in the area, citing only “Farming” on his declaration of interests.

As reported in the Sunday Business Post in 2007, Athenry has major sewage problems, with the town having grown 50% in the last number of years

‘[According to local Caroline McCormack] “What will happen if they realise human waste is polluting the River Shannon?” she asked. In the town of Athenry, a 49 per cent increase in the population in the last four years has also caused sewerage problems. Joe Dennison, the chairman of the community council in Athenry, said terrible odours were coming from the town’s small sewerage plant which is ‘‘overworked’’.

‘‘All these new housing estates have temporary treatment systems, but they have a life span of about five years,” he said. ‘‘When they get full, the sewage is flushed down to the main system, which is then overloaded, and the backlog causes a stench. There is an approval for a new plant for the town, but it is not likely to be up and running until 2011,” he said. The towns of Oughterard, Clarinbridge and Dunmore are also experiencing sewerage problems, including raw sewage flowing into Lough Corrib from Dunmore’s Sinking River.’

More at:
http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2007/05/06/story23381.asp

Peter Feeney became Chairman of Galway County Council in 2008.

Thomas Welby is an independent, is from Oughterard, and looks like this:

Thomas owns a petrol station in Oughterard. Yet rather than concentrating on cleaning up the environmental mess that Oughterard has become, Thomas has other priorities as he believes ‘it is a disgrace that the Government is funding An Taisce and subsidising their objections’, saying ‘This is harebrained situation. Who is funding these faceless individuals?’

Seán Ó Tuairisg is a Fianna Faíl councilor, representing Connemara, and appears like this:

Despite his own party having been in government for the last 12 years, and having brought through the Planning Act in 2000, regrettably Seán does not seem to be too familiar with the way the system operates. Not that he allows ignorance of facts get in his way, as Seán made sure to say “it was not right that An Taisce is a member of An Bord Pleanala and is therefore a judge in their own cases”. Perhaps Seán maybe concerned about other matters as well, such as the quality of Galway drinking water (much contaminated by faulty septic tanks of bungalows), or that the entire road from Galway city to Carraroe was reduced to 60 km per hour – primarily because of the amount of “one-offs” and ribbon development on the same. I also suspect Seán would be a man to lead the charge against “Dublin-driven discrimination” if and when school bus services are not provided to new one-offs, arising out of cost.

The Galway Advertiser article above dates from July 23rd this year, after the local elections. All councillors quoted feature on Galway County Council’s website.

Yesterday, September 3rd, 2009, in the Connacht Tribune it was reported:

Council to face massive fines for water pollution

Last year Galway County Council had to pay out over €3,500 in fines and costs when they were convicted of polluting the River Clarin resulting in… [subscription need for more]”

http://www.galwaynews.ie/8689-council-face-massive-fines-water-pollution

A most informative debate all round. Not an informed debate of course, but informative as to what local bastions of our democracy actually believe. Of course the tragic part to all this is that these councillors are the newly elected/ re-elected lot. What hope for the country if this is the quality of our elected representatives?