Hello, all,

What has been particularly on my mind over the past month is the new proposal for an air facility in the Roundstone Bog, which I’m sure you’ve been thinking about yourselves. I decided to send a letter to the Minister, and that will also be my letter to you for now.

Dear Minister,

This is in response to a notice from the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht inviting opinions on the proposed exchange of land in the Roundstone Bog between the government and a group of people who want land for the purpose of building an air facility to serve the Clifden area.

Attempting to form an opinion on the matter brings two simple, concrete questions to mind:

1. Who: what are the names of the people or organizations that want to build an air facility on the new site? Are the names associated with businesses or with other projects, and if so what impact have these businesses or projects had on a community?
2. What: exactly what do these people want to build on the new site? Would it be an "airstrip" or an "airport" ? What facilities or buildings would be included? What would be the social and environmental consequences, good and bad, for the area?

The answers to these questions have been the subject of much speculation in the community, and the circumspection of the people seeking to acquire the new site is notable: evidently they prefer speculation by the community rather than a direct appraisal by the community of who they are and what they want to do.

Of course, if the Minister agrees to the exchange, the people acquiring the new site are not in fact obliged to seek planning permission for an air facility, nor for the kind of air facility they may have said they wanted; they could seek planning permission for some other project entirely; they could sell the property to other people who could pursue the development of some other project.

Everyone can agree --the government, the community, and the prospective developers -- that if the exchange takes place, the new site will be in some way eventually developed to the profit of the developers and, if the planning permission apparatus works, also not to the loss of the community. We will all be depending on the wisdom of those who have the power to grant or withhold planning permission.

That is, unless some other legally binding process could be invoked, to which those who have the power to grant or withhold planning permission would, if necessary, have to defer -- a legally binding plebiscite that consults the will of the people of the community.

In my opinion, the possible consequences to the community of the exchange are of such importance that a public notice by the Minister in a county newspaper is inadequate. The Minister should not agree to the exchange unless and until the government guarantees that there will be a legally binding plebiscite on the use of the new site, conducted in such a way that, in the end, we, the members of the community, will have no one other than ourselves to blame or congratulate.

From Tullyvoheen, good night and God bless you.