Department of Defence 'frustrating' Curragh management plan
The issue came up under two parts of the meeting, initially in a presentation of progress by the Council's Strategic Projects & Public Realm Team.
Of 11 current projects in the €10.7m portfolio, ten of which are 'progressing well', MD Manager Joe Boland expressed his sorrow that it has not been possible to get the Department on board with the Curragh Plains - Land Management Plan.
"We have had meetings, but we still have not been able to get the Department to agree on how to progress the plan," he told the councillors present. "We have put a lot of work into the proposals, but I cannot get traction in the Department to get it to the next phase."
Cllr Fiona McLoughlin Healy said she was 'hugely disappointed' to hear that after years of effort, the Curragh is still 'struggling with rubbish dumping, scrambling, illegal activity and camps'.
Joe Boland said the Council had really hoped to be able to progress the project 'on a partnership basis' with the Department. "Our money for it is on the table, ready to progress to tender, but we cannot do it on our own."
Cllr Suzanne Doyle wondered if it was time to be dealing at 'a national level' on the matter, with a view to have the Curragh taken over by another department? Joe Boland agreed that taking it national 'is not a bad idea'.
He added that the project requires a 'shared vision' from all the stakeholders as to how the Curragh lands might be better managed. "But we don't have control of the lands, so it has to be in partnership with the Department."
Cllr McLoughlin Healy expressed her astonishment that the Department is actually 'stopping it from going forward'. "Maybe we should write to the Ministers in the departments of Defence, Agriculture, and Local Government and ask each of them for their advice," she suggested. "At least we would have it on record that we put them on notice about the matter."
In a subsequent discussion on a motion by Cllr Patricia Ryan asking for a progress report on the status of 'an underground dump' behind Donnelly's Hollow, the meeting was told that the Council is 'in correspondence with legal representatives of the Department of Defence' on the matter.
Joe Boland said that a reply from the Department 'was not helpful', and that the Council is 'getting impatient' on the issue. He said they may be preparing to take the next step of serving a statutory notice on the Department.
Noting the concerns of Cllr Ryan on the contents of the dump, he said there has been an analysis and there is no 'hazard implication'.
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