This article is from page 13 of the 2009-04-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
A GREEN party councillor has re- jected accusations that his party has supported policies that have “forced urbanisation” on rural Ireland.
Cllr Brian Meaney was responding to claims aired by Fianna Fail coun- cillor Tom Prendeville that the Green party along with planners and Gov- ernment departments had exercised policies responsible for the “herding of people into towns and cities”.
Cllr Prendeville was quoting from a book by rural housing advocate Jim Connolly, entitled “The Enforced Urbanisation of Ireland – Utopia or stile
“Tt is alleged that an accord exists between planners, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local government, An Bord Pleannala, An Taisce and political groups within Government to use their bureaucratic power to force urbanisation on rural Ireland by herding people into towns and cities,” read Cllr Prendeville.
He continued, “There appears to be a conspiracy aboard between all these groups to maximise developer greed. The 1.5 million people living in rural Ireland are being denied a voice or an opinion on this enforced urbanisation exercise. Basically, it is a deliberate pre-meditated exercise in what amounts to be the ethnic cleansing of the rural population.
“If this enforced urbanisation con- tinues apace, rural Ireland will be reduced to a green wilderness de-
void of any semblance of community life,’ read Cllr Prendeville.
Cllr Meaney told yesterday’s meet- ing of Clare County Council that he found it “unusual” that councillors could read out “rantings and claim them to be fact”.
Cllr Meaney said that everyone was entitled to their opinion but that no one was entitled to have their opin- ion held as fact, without it being sub- ject to rigorous questioning.
Cllr Meaney told the meeting that
the decline experienced in rural Ire- land had resulted directly from “Fi- anna Fail’s economic policies and from all those meetings in tents”. Cllr Meaney said he was quoting from the website www.politics.ie Cllr Meaney said that the “vast ma- jority” of people in Clare did not ac- cept claims that the Green party had colluded in anti-rural policies.