Tá áthas orm an deis seo a ghlacadh chun míniú a thabhairt ar chinneadh an Rialtais in ndáil leis an ionad cuairteoirí ag an Mullach Mhóir agus chun soiléiriú a thabhairt ar cad atá beartaithe don todhchaí.
I thank the Deputy for raising this matter on the Adjournment this afternoon. I hope my contribution will allay some, if not all, of the fears of those in the Burren area who were in favour of the proposal to develop the visitor centre at Mullaghmore. I am particularly glad to have the opportunity of setting out exactly what the Government has decided, which is as follows:
The planning application at present before Clare County Council for the retention of the existing structures and for the completion of the Visitor Centre as planned at Mullaghmore is to be withdrawn. A management plan for the Burren National Park is to be prepared and presented for consideration by the public and interested parties. In the meantime, the partially constructed buildings are to be dismantled but the completed bus and car parks will be retained pending further consideration in the light of the management plan referred to above.
The case has been made that, by withdrawing the planning application for the Mullaghmore centre, we have somehow delayed developments in the Burren by many years. This seems to be based on the theory that by allowing the planning process to proceed in the expectation that the application would ultimately be successful, the Government would have no option but to proceed with the project. This is an extension of the fallacious argument applied to this case from the beginning, that is, that once the project is started it will be impossible to stop it. As I said in Seanad Éireann yesterday during the debate on the Heritage Bill:
A historic shift in culture is required. There was a time in Irish culture when people imagined that if one presented people with nearly finished items, they would accept them. However, we are now at a point in our cultural history where people want to see things in the shapes that are to come before their consent is presumed. We must operate in that manner.
It rings hollow to hear people speak of pre-emptive strikes. If there had not been indecent haste and pre-emptive strikes by others who had responsibility in this area we would not have had the divisions in County Clare to which the Deputy referred.
