'Hunger strike outside Leinster House' threat over Ballyshannon
A threat of hunger strike was made at last weekend’s public meeting organised by the Ballyshannon Action Group to update residents on the plans to continue the fight against Kilsaran’s plans for a quarry at Racefield, writes Brian Byrne.
And though it may have been made in the heat of the moment, the comment did reflect the level of feeling against the development, for which Kilsaran was recently granted permission on appeal to An Bord Pleanala.
The meeting heard that the Action Group had commenced the process of seeking a Judicial Review of the appeal board’s decision, but that the legal team had decided not to attend the meeting on the basis that their strategy should be kept confidential. “This is a public meeting and there’s no knowing where information from here would be going,” Jim Burke of the Action Group said. “But trust us, we do have a strategy.”
For the man who threatened a hunger strike outside Leinster House, it was the prospect of trucks being active from 7am six mornings of the week, ‘and the beepers are going off all day’ as they engaged reverse, that exercised him. He said it would be non-stop for himself and other neighbours close to Racefield, and it would be the same for others beside other sites that were being bought up in the area. “I’ll do everything I have to do to stop it,” he said vehemently.
Minister of State Martin Heydon, who chaired the meeting, said that the big money behind developers doesn’t necessarily give them an automatic win in a Judicial Review, that it was a case of proving that An Bord Pleanala hadn’t followed the correct procedures. “They have been caught out not following procedures before,” he said. “I think we have a very good chance here … Kildare County Council put up a very strong refusal, and the board’s own inspector recommended refusal, so it’s not all about the money, it’s about process. It is about looking for the weak points in any argument, and there are a lot of points here, from our perspective, that we think are in our favour."
Kilcullen Community Action’s Eoin Houlihan said that quarry people ‘make a lot of money’ from their projects. “But we get nothing, all we are left with is dust, illnesses and sickness, and a hole in the ground. We need to seriously look at what we are doing to our countryside, to our people, to our roads. It’s just not good enough … we need our elected Government and our officials to stand up to these people and to hold them to account.”
The meeting was attended by deputies Patricia Ryan and Cathal Berry as well as local councillors from both Athy and Kildare-Newbridge MDs.
"Our planning system has failed us. If we want to protect Kilcullen and its surrounding countryside, our communities, heritage and wildlife, we must join forces. We have little choice now, but to act."
READ: Ballyshannon community urged to 'stick together' in Racefield fight
