Six appeals have been lodged against plans to build a 38,000-tonne rock barrier at Donald Trump’s golf resort in Doonbeg, Co Clare.
The submissions, including one from an organisation based in California, have been made to An Bord Pleanála against Clare county council’s decision to grant planning permission for the project.
Consultants for the Trump company, TIGL Ireland Enterprises Ltd, have warned that a failure to put in place coastal defences for the golf course will bring the entire viability of the resort into question.
One of the appeals has been lodged by Save The Waves Coalition based in Davenport, California, which describes itself as a global non-profit organisation dedicated to protecting coastal resources. An Taisce, the state heritage agency, and Peter Sweetman, an environmentalist, also lodged appeals, as have groups based in Co Clare: the West Coast Surf Club, in Lahinch, and the Save Doughmore Doonbeg Beach community group, in Milltown Malbay, along with Liam Madden, a Longford resident.
The coastal barrier plan has the endorsement of the local community and the Doughmore Coastal Protection Group, which was established last year to support the project.
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The group made a submission to the appeals board, in which Liam Ryan, one of its members, said: “We cannot afford to lose this business. There is no legitimate reason for anyone with the proper facts and knowledge to object to what is proposed.
“That is why at our very well-attended meeting of over 400 west Clare people in the hall in Doonbeg there were no dissenting voices to the protection works being proposed.”
Nick Scott Mucha, programme director of Save the Waves, told the planning board that the scale of what is planned “remains significant, long-term and irreversible”. Mr Mucha said that his organisation “strongly encourages” the board to overturn the decision as the proposed scheme “will lead to multiple, cumulative and irreversible environmental impacts for this public asset whilst alternative solutions to accommodate coastal change are feasible, yet ignored by TIGL”.
He warned that if the scheme proceeded “it will inevitably set a bad precedent for the future of Irish coastal policy, and indeed for the management of golf courses on dune systems in any location”.
The US-based group claims that the proposed scheme is an incremental step towards the development of a continuous sea defence along the full length of the Doughmore Bay. It said that the most practical design solution to TIGL’s erosion concern was to make modifications to the golf course layout rather than impose coastal defences on a public beach.
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An Taisce has lodged a 29-page appeal. “An Taisce submits that the justification for the proposed protection works is scientifically unfounded and inaccurate,” Phoebe Duvall, a member of the agency’s planning office, stated in the document.
“The applicant’s argument is predicated on the erroneous assertion that the coastal erosion that is occurring at Doughmore Bay and causing the loss of the dune frontage is a result of waves, sea level rise, and storms, all of which will be intensified by climate change.
“This is a misinterpretation of the causes of erosion and loss of dune habitat at the site. Wave action, sea level rise, and storms do not automatically result in disappearance of beaches and dunes,” she added.
A decision is due later this year.