Residents of Clonmacnois, Co. Offaly, have expressed renewed concern over efforts by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to have the ancient monastic site accorded World Heritage status.
The Clonmacnois Action Group, which represents local people concerned about the implications of a designation for their livelihoods and lifestyles, wants a meeting with Minister Jimmy Deenihan as fear grows that his Department will push ahead with trying to get UNESCO to approve the designation without consulting its members.
The Minister recently told local TD Nicky Fadden that he is, “reviewing the strategy for advancing nominations to the World Heritage List from the new tentative list.”
He said his Department is undertaking a feasibility study in relation to one site, which he did not name, and that, "consideration is now being given to the order of progressing nominations from the tentative list and the process for progressing such nominations.”
The Clonmacnois site is one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions, drawing 134,000 visitors last year.
It was included in a list of Irish sites put forward in 2010 to the UN agency for accreditation as a World Heritage Centre.
The chairperson of the Clonmacnois Action Group, John Dolan, said he believed the Department is, “still proceeding even though we got previous assurances from the then Taoiseach that they would not do so without public consultation."
Mr Dolan said he feared the Department is pushing the bid and had learned nothing from the local opposition that emerged two years ago over implications of having World Heritage Status accorded to the site.
These centred on the size of a buffer zone restricting planning, possible effects on farming practices, and restrictions on the extension to the current burial ground, all of which had alarmed the local community.
"We'd like to see us being consulted as promised. It's not good enough," said Mr Dolan.
Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen had assured the group back in October 2009 that locals would be consulted.
Mr Dolan claimed people near Newgrange, already a World Heritage site, had said that no planning was allowed in the area after its designation and they had grave fears this could happen in Clonmacnois.
His group understood that pursuit of World Heritage status for Clonmacnois had been terminated following objections on behalf of the local community.
But now, he said, it feared that Mr Deenihan’s Department is continuing to work on the application.