October-November 2024 15
We return to planning in dodgy Donegal. This
time with calls for inquiries from prominent
environmentalists and the former Minister
who initiated the review that led to the
incendiary but unpublished, Mulcahy report
in 2017. They want answers from the Minister
about yet another development pantomime,
as a former 200-acre wilderness is being
entirely filled with a sprawling greedy holiday
village, one of the worst breaches of EU
Habitats law on record, pushed through by
former Manager Michael McLoone who
dysfunctionally circumvented his professional
planners.
Background
It’s ten years since Village published, to a
craven political and media silence, most of all
in Donegal, a long exposé of dodgy planning
in Donegal on the back of detailed allegations
covering 20 alleged incidents from former
Senior Executive Planner with Donegal County
Council, Gerard Convie.
Former County Manager Michael McLoone,
acting through Senator Michael McDowell SC,
sued Village and me as editor for defamation
but, predictably, he never followed up.
Village’s 2014 article was based on
documents Convie had opened in court in
2013 in an action he won against the
Department of Environment for failing to
vindicate his good name, after it had dissed
his allegations submitted to the countrywide
review initiated by John Gormley when he was
Minister for Planning.
The court found he had a right to vindication
of his good name and he got €25,000 in
damages plus substantial costs.
The allegations were the subject of a review
by a senior counsel, Rory Mulcahy, whose
report has — unconscionably — yet to be
published. It has now been on the desk of
seven successive ministers.
Convie should really sue the Department
(again) for release of the report as his name
Corrupted Donegal planning:
outgoing Minister Darragh
O’Brien must finally intervene
Former Minister John Gormley calls for publication of Mulcahy report and
reset of planning in Donegal; meanwhile the wrecked integrity of the
dunes in the former wilderness at Aghadachor — the most egregious
flouting of EU habitats law in Donegal and arguably in Ireland — adds a
new dimension to the ongoing flouting of law, and environmental and
planning norms, in lawless Donegal
By Michael Smith
cannot be vindicated until its findings are
published.
The current relevant Minister is Darragh
O’Brien who declared to the Dáil in 2021 that
he was “considering the matter” and will
bring it to Cabinet “in due course” which he
eventually specified to mean the end of 2023.
But, though the Minister has a good record
on corruption, still nothing.
So, under the Minister’s watch…
The dodginess goes on:
1) Retention Problem; current case
study: Letterkenny
In February, we documented evidence
that the scandal in Donegal continues.
On 6 January, 2024 the Donegal Daily
NEWS
Minister Darragh O’Brien
mus publish he 2017
Mulchy repor on dodgy
plnning nd ddress
ongoing issues.
The de-wilded Atlntic Wy t Aghdchor, County Donegl
Convie.indd 15 03/10/2024 14:29
16 October-November 2024
reported: “Investigation finds huge
retention permission volume in Donegal’’.
Being Donegal, the report was small but
the number was large: 1,400
developments in Donegal have been
constructed without planning permission
in the four years 2019-2023. Being
Donegal the rest of the media remained
silent. The County Council dispenses
much of the budget for media in Donegal.
I highlighted a case which clearly
illustrates the ongoing problem with
unauthorised development in Donegal. It
was the unauthorised public house/night
club on Main Street, Letterkenny.
This premises houses five bars over
three floors in the best Letterkenny way,
and has three DJs in three of the bars,
with dance floors; it has a licence to
operate until 3 a.m. There is no planning
permission for a night club. Objections to
the development and the use were
submitted to Donegal County Council
[DCC] on 24 September 2018, 1 October
2018 and also on 15 October 2018: all
were ignored.
As of October 2024, the substantive
unauthorised night-club use had not
been regularised – in other words, no
planning permission exists.
Multiple complaints had been
escalated to the underenergised
Ombudsman in November 2022. As well
as exonerating DCC for not dealing with
the complaints to it and taking four years
to acknowledge the complaints, only
after they had been forwarded to the
Ombudsman, the Ombudsman agreed
with DCC that it could find no evidence of
the unauthorised billboard. This seemed
a stretch since the billboard is
approximately 13 m. long and 4 m. high,
loaded atop a stranded trailer in a
prominent position.
This isn’t the first time that DCC has
lied to the Ombudsman regarding
complaints to it [the Ombudsman]
concerning unauthorised development;
e.g. it denied a complaint as long ago as
the mid-2000s to the Ombudsman that
DCC had permitted development on top
of an ancient graveyard situated along
the iconic Knockalla Drive on the Fanad
Peninsula, which, under the County
Development Plan, is protected. DCC told
the then Ombudsman that no such
graveyard existed. The Ombudsman
accepted the word of DCC. It was
embarrassing — as if the Ombudsman
didn’t rate the significance of the truth.
2) Over-elevation of McLoone’s
planning stooges
McLoone rewarded a planner called Jim
Harley for his assistance in the removal
of Convie from his post, elevating him
from the position of executive planner to
Convie’s position and then to the level of
senior planner and ultimately acting
director of planning — despite
documented evidence presented in the
High Court regarding alleged corruption
by Harley. The affidavit of Convie, opened
in the High Court, set out that McLoone
needed Harley in Convie’s position in
order that the planning decisions desired
by McLoone would be forthcoming. That
averment was never denied. Harley is
one of the main subjects of the
unpublished Mulcahy Report.
3) Unaddressed complaint about
Quinn’s working relationship with
wife
McLoone failed to examine the
complaints accompanied by
documentary evidence that had been
sent to him and to SIPOC, and to the
Minister subsequently — regarding a
planner called Eunan Quinn and his
failure to declare conflicts of interest
concerning his wife, Aideen, or their
construction of a house in flagrant
breach of both the Development Plan
they work with and the planning-
permission conditions attached to it.
Eunan Quinn had been promoted no
fewer than four times by McLoone
despite his rejection by the Local
Appointments Commission for a
relatively junior position. He was
assiduous in aiding McLoone in attempts
to smear Convie for alleged professional
impropriety though they were to no
ultimate avail. His wife Aideen had been
an assistant planner in DCC but left
around the mid-1990s, when she married
Eunan and they began a family.
She obtained planning commissions
from planning agents in the County with
whom her husband had had working
relations.
The matter was the subject of the
complaint to Minister John Gormley
around 2007 along with about 20 other
cases. However, for some unknown
reason, and despite objections,
ultimately the Minister forbade the
senior counsel, Rory Mulcahy, from
examining the complaint regarding
Quinn.
Village hs been leding with Donegl’s
dodgy plnning for nerly  decde
Michel McLoone
Michael Smith, Ian Lumley of An Taisce and Gerard Convie at a press conference about
Donegal planning delinquency, in 2015
Convie.indd 16 03/10/2024 14:29
Timeline of planning applications
at once-wild Aghadachor, County
Donegal, for a holiday resort, now
tellingly marketed as “Donegal
Boardwalk”
The scam: how it happened that almost 200 acres on the wild
idyllic coast of Donegal is being debased into a sprawling hous-
ing estate, hotel and the usual leisure stuff – in breach of Irish
law, European Law, the ruling Donegal County Development Plan,
elementary planning norms and the public interest.
•
February 1994 Michael McLoone started working for Donegal
County Council (DCC) as County Manager, the boss.
• 1995 Gerard Convie was awarded an M.Sc. with distinction from
the University of Ulster, in Environmental Science, with a thesis
on Dune Management and a focus on EU law. Along with his
qualifications in planning and archaeology, his masters in
Environmental Management rendered him particularly qualified
to deal with planning applications affected by the newly emerging
EU regulations in respect of natural habitats.
•
1996 Lackagh Enterprises Ltd – Mick McGinley, former County
Footballer and his son, garlanded golfer Paul McGinley –
submitted a pre-planning proposal to develop a golf course, hotel
and holiday homes at Aghadachor outside Creeslough.
•
The proposal was roundly rejected by County Planner, Gerard
4) Standards in Public Oice
Commission (SIPOC)
SIPOC is currently investigating over
20 complaints, some lodged as long
as twelve years ago, into the
administration of planning in Donegal
County Council; they have all reached
the second phase of the SIPOC
investigation process whereby all
those who are the subject of the
complaints are invited to respond to
the allegations. The subjects of those
complaints to SIPOC include the
former County Managers, McLoone
and Seamus Neely, and the current
one, John McLaughlin. Despite the
serious questions regarding their
probity and the ethics of their actions
and non-actions, no Minister has
sought to bring any of them to account.
In fact, when Neely quit his post in
DCC, Minister Darragh O’Brien,
obviously pleased with his record, and
despite the allegations being
investigated by SIPOC, proceeded to
appoint him to be the Chair of the
Independent Working Group to
examine the issue of Defective
Housing, as well as to the Housing
Bodies Regulatory Authority.
5) Planning Regulator (OPR)
A report by the Office of the Planning
Regulator (OPR) in December 2021
found that almost 50% of all appeals
decided on Donegal planning
applications were being reversed by An
Bord Pleanála. Many more are altered
rather than reversed. The national
average for reversals is 28%.
The report found that Donegal grants
95% of all planning applications. Given
that the vast majority of applications
are for one-off houses in rural Donegal,
a most scenic County, and are therefore
restricted by the Council’s own
Development Plan, that figure is
astounding.
6) High Court
Since the débacle in the High Court in
2013, and the Mulcahy report fiasco
dating from 2017, Gerard Convie has
brought five successful High Court
cases regarding the administration of
planning in Donegal County Council; in
the process, he has been vindicated and
paid substantial damages and his
costs.
7) Worst single example of flouting
of European and Irish planning law
in Donegal: Aghadachor
But now Village has had its attention
drawn to the most egregious breach
of planning in the history of planning
in Donegal. The Wild West’s wildest
planning file which escaped the
attention of Convie, who assumed the
application had been refused, and
therefore the attention of Rory
Mulcahy.
With Convie gone, McLoone
clerly foresw his gend
could be lrgely del wih
by Hrley
• The EU Habitats Directive
EU Member States must designate, protect and
manage core areas for habitat types listed in Annex I
and species listed in annex II of the Habitats Directive.
Sites are selected on scientific grounds using the
criteria laid down in the Directive (Annex III).
The 59 habitats listed on the Habitats Directive that
occur in Ireland are a good representation of Ireland’s
semi-natural and natural habitats covering marine,
freshwater, peatland, grassland and woodland
habitats. A larger number than in many other EU
members are on private lands. 85% of habitats are
reported to be in Unfavourable status (46%
Unfavourable inadequate and 39% Unfavourable bad).
Last year budget for the National Parks and Wildlife
Service still languished at around 30% of 2008 levels
due to cuts.
The Habitats Directive provides for the creation of a
network of protected sites known as Natura 2000.
These sites include SPAs (under the Birds Directive)
and SACs.
Habitats must be subjected to:
1.
Prior assessment of potentially damaging plans and
projects.
2.
A requirement that these plans and projects be
approved only if they represent an overriding
interest and only if no alternative solution exists.
3.
Measures for providing compensatory habitats in
the event of damage.
These provisions are utterly and unlawfully flouted in
Donegal. Any legal case or complaint to the EU
Commission would expose the scandal.
October 2024-November 17
Convie.indd 17 03/10/2024 14:29
18 October-November 2024
Convie, on the grounds of multiple contraventions of the County
Development Plan and the proposed (later confirmed) Special
Area of Conservation, SAC. But time would be on the side of
Lackagh Enterprises Ltd (which we shall refer to from now on as
the McGinleys).
• 1997 Along with academics from the University of Ulster, Convie
made a successful application to the EU’s LIFE programme and
was awarded the largest sum that had been awarded — €1m — for
a project dealing with dune protection in collaboration with local
communities in County Donegal.
Convie arranged a meeting so the University of Ulster
academics would meet McLoone in his office — against the happy
background of the EU LIFE award. McLoone gave them a cold
reception.
•
1997 Despite the serious grounds for rejection, the McGinleys
went ahead and submitted two applications for their proposals.
Convie consulted widely: every relevant Government Department
and NGO warned against the proposals, noting that the Council
could be hauled before the European Court of Justice for granting
any proposal adversely affecting the integrity an SAC.
County Manager McLoone, a former County football teammate
of Mick McGinley, took control of the applications, even insisting
that Convie accompany him to inspect the site. History does not
record how the conversations went on their journeys.
• The file shows that McLoone grandiosely seemed to believe that
he was chairing a “steering committee’’ in respect of the
applications and he maintained a separate file on proceedings in
his own office.
•
The McGinleys corresponded directly solely with McLoone and
meetings were held with selected Council personnel but excluding
Convie.
• A report by an environment thinktank in the University of Ulster to
DCC strongly urged rejection of the applications, in particular the
sprawling golf course and holiday houses, and expressed concern
about interference with the foreshore of the Glenree River which
would change its nature. That report is now “missing”.
•
1998 A Press Conference in Rossnowlagh, regarding the LIFE
project explained the project centred on the protection of the
County’s sand-dune systems. McLoone begrudgingly attended
but proceeded to the platform without waiting to be announced
and left immediately afterwards, refusing to talk to the press and
TV, leaving it to Convie.
•
1998 Conveniently for McLoone, around the same time, an outline
planning application was made for development of housing in
west Donegal at Magheraroarty – a site which Convie’s family had
bid on in a sale; the site was designated in principle as a housing
site in the County Development Plan and Convie dutifully complied
with all the relevant statutory requirements regarding his interest
in the land.
• 1998 The Magheraroarty planning application was lodged by a
third party. Outline planning permission was approved by all
planners dealing with the file as well as by all senior management
following a long enquiry by Convie’s Council superiors.
• 1998 A former chairperson of Donegal County Council, Maureen
Doohan, whose family had an interest in the land at Magheraroarty,
complained to McLoone that Convie might be involved in the
planning application.
This was a God-sent opportunity for McLoone to diver t attention
away from the McGinley applications and steer attention towards
Magheraroarty and busybody Convie.
The time limit for the McGinley applications was extended,for
the first time, At least 10 extensions of time would eventually be
sought.
• End 1998 McLoone began an almost year-long investigation into
Convie and the Magheraroarty application and concluded,
dubiously, that Convie had used “insider information” and must
be sacked.
•
December 1998 A planning appeal on the Magheraroarty decision
was submitted by local residents; Convie did not make a
recommendation on, or decide, the application.
•
June 1999 Convie was suspended and McLoone requested the
Fianna Fáil Minister, Noel Dempsey, to remove him from office.
• 1999 Convie was replaced by Jim Harley.
•
1999 McLoone improperly telephoned An Bord Pleanála regarding
the Magheraroarty appeal, attempting to influence the decision.
Convie discovered the transcript of the call in DCC offices. He must
have been pleased.
• July 1999 An Bord Pleanála refused the Magheraroarty proposal.
• November 1999 The McGinleys withdrew both applications.
• August 2000 Minister Dempsey acceded to McLoone’s request to
remove Convie from office.
• August 2000 With Convie out of the way, the McGinleys started
up again and re-submitted an application for something similar
to what had been rejected in 1997.
Against he bckground of he
Mulchy repor nd he reliy of
legl-plnning nrchy in Donegl,
Miniser Drrgh O’Brien mus
invoke S255 of he Plnning nd
Developmen Ac which pplies
where he Miniser considers
here my be “impropriey in he
conduc of ny of is funcions by
plnning uhoriy”
This shows he visully inrusive building housing  resurn, nd
prmens on he wer wihin he once inc SAC
Convie.indd 18 03/10/2024 14:29
October 2024-November 19
• August 2000 Egregiously and without explanation, Dúchas — the
Heritage Section of the Department of Heritage — changed its
earlier negative recommendation to No Objection; Donegal County
Council could in fact have ignored the recommendation, especially
given the weight of objections received from statutory bodies
during the original applications in 1997. Ironically, objections to
further development of the site from the Department of Heritage
in later applications were totally ignored by the Donegal planners.
•
September 2000 DCC, through Jim Harley, prepared a lengthy
request for further information from the applicants, indicating that
permission would be granted.
•
2000 Convie challenged the Minister’s decision in the High Court.
• 2000 The McGinleys stalled their applications.
• October 2001 The High Court action by Convie was settled very
much to his advantage with substantial damages and an
agreement at Convie’s insistence that he would resign from the
planning office — with no concession that he had been dismissed,
properly or at all.
Convie has been successful in each of his five High Court cases
concerning the administration of planning in Co Donegal; in one
of the cases, McLoone was excruciatingly forced to admit in open
court, recorded, that Convie had never done anything wrong in
the Magheraroarty business.
Convie was, from here on, inevitably unable to exert any
influence over the future of the Aghadachor site.
•
2001 The McGinleys resubmitted their 2000 application, still
without an EIS, and it was granted. It was a condition of the
permission that holiday homes must not be sold on. The decision
was in total contravention of Donegal’s 2000 Development Plan
in respect of holiday homes and the conservation of the
environment, especially Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and
Special Protection Areas for birds (SPAs).
Quite extraordinarily, although the sprawling golf course was
planned to obliterate the SAC; no impact study of any sort was
submitted.
Notwithstanding this, planning permission was granted for the
2000 application; though it was a condition that the holiday
homes were not to be sold.
It is notable that every application by the McGinleys was
submitted by planning agent, John Masterson, of Letterkenny.
Masterson is married to the sister of Jim Harley who never declared
his interest in any of the applications.
• May 2006 Jim Harley quit DCC and became involved as a planning
agent, with Masterson, for the applicants.
• May 2007 The site moved into the hands of M.A. & P.G. Preston;
with Harley still as agent.
•
An application to extend the duration of the permission was
successfully lodged with no evidence the Department of Heritage
or An Taisce had been consulted.
• July 2010 A further application — primarily for an extra 47 holiday
houses, and the inevitable eponymous ‘boardwalk’, was
successful. A further letter to the applicants stated that permission
would last 10 years.
This was the first time any screening (preliminary assessment
required under EU law) for Appropriate Assessment had been
submitted; the assessment stated that there were no Annex 1 (i.e.
protected) Species in the SAC.
This was incorrect; a Department of Heritage report stated:
“fixed dunes with herbaceous vegetation [grey dunes] large
shallow inlets and bays, and mudflats and sandflats not covered
by seawater at low tide, all of which are habitats listed in Annex 1
of the EU Habitats Directive”.
The screening then contradicted its original statement about the
impact on species by claiming that there were, in fact, Annex 1
species in the sand flats and grey dunes “which would potentially
be affected by the development”. The heedlessness was becoming
farcical.
There was no mention of the impact of the hotel proposed on
the shore which was inside the SAC. The new location for the
“hotel” was also within an area of especially high scenic amenity
specifically zoned as “no development”. The screening was not
assessed by a qualified person as required. The planning office
simply took the word of the developers that there would be no
negative impact on the SAC.
• After that, permission was granted to drop the plans for the hotel
and build a restaurant and apartments in its place, directly on the
beach.
• Then, permission was given to drop development charges and to
expand the appropriate period from five to ten years to complete
the development, all by dubious authority.
•
After the initial grant of planning permission, there were seven
further applications to develop this site before McLoone retired in
July 2012; however, there is not a single trace of any involvement
by him in any of the relevant planning files after Convie left, and
Harley was in place.
With Convie gone, McLoone clearly foresaw his agenda could
be dealt with mainly by Harley.
•
There have been a further ten planning applications to further
develop the Aghadachor site since McLoone retired. The last of the
22 which have together destroyed the once wonderful site, is still
current.
•
April 2012 A further application was lodged to make modifications
to the permission granted. The Department of Heritage confirmed
that the development was partly within the SAC and adjoined the
remainder of the SAC. This was the first comment from the
Department — 11 years after the first grant of permission.
It stated: “It is noted that the proposed development is situated
In Februry we documened evidence
h he scndl in Donegl coninues,
wih csul nd ourgeous reenion
permissions, dodgy personnel shuffles
nd filure o give informion o
ouside invesigors like SIPO nd he
Plnning Regulor
The bordwlk ermines  he bech nd he phoogrph
shows he exen of erosion cused by visiors
Convie.indd 19 03/10/2024 14:29
20 October-November 2024
adjacent to and in a location likely to impact on the Sheephaven
Special Area of Conservation Site. The Department are of the view
that this development: Could damage/destroy the habitats large
shallow inlets and bays, and mudflats and sandflates not covered
by seawater at low tide, both of which are habitats listed in Annex
I of the EU Habitats Directive (Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the
Conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora). The
potential impacts would be caused by the: Damage/Destruction
to adjacent habitats in the Special Area of Conservation due to
inappropriate site preparation and construction techniques”.
Finally government was paying professional heed to EU norms.
• 2012-2021 Eight mostly successful applications were permitted
for more or less ancillary developments. Each was objected to by
the Department of Heritage.
•
2021 Bartra, infamous for buy-to-let developments in Dublin, and
controlled by former Treasury Holdings supremo Richard Barrett,
which by then owned it, sold the site “much of which is still
undeveloped” for more than €3.8m to a company called Malroco
which said it would “develop the resort further to its full potential
as a premier holiday destination on the island of Ireland”. It noted
that the resort, for such it had become, adjoined the spectacular
1km-long boardwalk.
• September 2022 Successful application for glamping pods, tent
pitches, caravan pitches, shop, café, showers toilets and laundry
facilities; referred to Department of Heritage which produced no
report; not referred to An Taisce.
•
September 2022 New successful application to create apartments
within the beach-fronting building; also a spa.
•
August 2024 yet a further application was made to further develop
the pods already permitted and to develop further tennis courts.
That decision is now pending.
•
Despite the continued objections from the Department of Heritage
after 2012 regarding the impact of the extraordinarily multifarious
proposed developments on the SAC, the planners ploughed on
— in the end facilitating what is a holiday complex to compete with
anything seen in any holiday town in all Donegal.
• In order to obtain planning permission for a hotel and associated
holiday cottages in rural Donegal, an applicant must show how
they would ‘’develop the tourist potential of the particular site”.
That was never demonstrated in Aghadachor. Looking back, there
does not seem to have been any real intention to build any hotel
or to develop the tourism potential of the site — the exercise was
extraction of the maximum value of the land, no matter what rules
and regulations were contravened — or the scenic massacre.
Convie himself told Village the scheme for holiday housing was
“the greatest scam ever perpetrated against the administration of
planning in Co Donegal, as well as an act of mindless environmental
vandalism which is punishable by European law”.
Clearly in the case of Aghadachor the requirements of EU law [see
box p17] have been flouted:
1. Prior assessment of potentially damaging plans and projects.
2. A requirement that these plans and projects be approved only
if they represent an overriding interest and only if no alternative
solution exist.
3. Measures for providing compensatory habitats in the event of
damage.
Speaking to Village at the beginning of October, Convie
declared: “I am calling for the immediate protection of all relevant
planning files relating to this development and the suspension
of all personnel responsible for the greatest scam ever enacted
against planning in Donegal which has been sanctioned by the
former county managers, McLoone and Neely and the current CEO
McLaughlin and the official directing planning, Liam Ward, and
his senior planning staff. The file relating to the non-existent
‘steering committee’ which McLoone seemed to be ‘steering’ as
a pet project on behalf of his friends, the McGinleys, has gone
missing and was not available under FOI request. Confidence
must be restored to planning in our county. Given the horrendous
planning stats supported by the OPR along with the number of
current cases before SIPOC, as well as the number of successful
High Court cases against the administration of planning in Co
Donegal, it is bizarre that the OPR insists that it has no current
intention of investigating Donegal County Council”.
An Taisce’s heritage officer, Ian Lumley, said the file on
Aghadachor was “perhaps the most cussed and flagrant breach
of EU environmental law I have come across in thirty years
monitoring planning applications”.
Tony Lowes, Director of Friends of the Irish Environment said it
was evidence of the “extraordinary, egregious laxity of care for
habitats and planning that is characteristic of Donegal County
Council”.
Against the background of the Mulcahy report and the reality
of legal-planning anarchy in Donegal it is clear that Minister
Darragh O’Brien must invoke section 255 of the Planning and
Development Act which applies where the Minister considers
there may be “impropriety in the conduct of any of its functions
by a planning authority”, or “there are serious diseconomies or
inefficiencies in the conduct of its functions by a planning
authority”.
He must appoint a commissioner to carry out the functions of
the planning authority.
Nothing else will save the integrity of the rule of law in lawless
Donegal, once Ireland’s most beautiful county.
Meanwhile, Paul McGinley was awarded the Freedom of
Donegal in 2022 when, ironically, he extolled the scenic gem that
he said was County Donegal.
Flouting of EU habitats law joins systematic flouting of national
planning law, favours for friends, shifting of planning personnel,
failures of enforcement and failure to publish damning reports as
examples of how Donegal has operated under a different regime.
Reflecting this, John Gormley, the former Green Party leader
and Minister for the Environment who initiated the review into
planning in Donegal that ultimately led to Convie’s legal actions,
and the Mulcahy report, told Village: “It’s time to publish the
Mulcahy report and for government intervention to reset planning
in Donegal”.
Minister O’Brien’s office was sent this piece and responded:
“I’m afraid all we can offer as a comment is the below: The Minister
is currently considering the Mulcahy report and will bring this
matter to Government for consideration in due course. As such it
would be imprudent to comment on any of the specific issues
mentioned within the article at this time”. At the time of writing
the CEO of Donegal County Council had not replied to a request
for comments.
This ph leds o he bordwlk nd o ennis cours. The
enire hbis of hese res of he SAC hve been irrerievbly
lered.
Convie.indd 20 03/10/2024 14:29

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