This article is from page 32 of the 2013-06-11 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 32 JPG
A NORTH Clare action-group designed to formally oppose the construction of Ireland’s large fish-farm off the Fanore coast was established last week.
The action-group, which contains 15 active local members, met last week to establish a strategy for opposing the farm.
A petition set up by the group last Thursday has already received almost 500 signatures and is on target to reach 1,000 by the end of the week.
According to local GP and action group member, Fergus Glynn, the group is made up of a large cross section of the local North Clare community.
“We are not against a project like this taking place, we just have a lot of serious concerns that have not been met yet.
“We are not against fish farms at all, in fact aqua-culture is an essential part of our future, but not like this.
“Oyster fish farming, for example, is far more sustainable and cleaner than salmon farming,” said Fergus.
“We have set a number of goals fro the campaign.
“The first is to get this petition off the ground, the second is the Tour de Burren – which will bring more than 2,500 thousands visitors to North Clare.
“We plan to target this event in two weeks time and we will plan to spread as much information as possible among the people at that event.
“We understand that there will be a Junior Minister at that event and we would hope to make our feelings own.”
According to the action group, no local politicians have attended to any of the public meeting organised in Clare to date.
“We have had representatives from the national politicians. the Clare TD, but we haven’t heard from any of the county councillors.
“We will be organising a meeting fore the local politicians later this month and we will let them know well in advance,” continued Fergus.
“We will also be inviting BIM [Bord Iascaigh Mhara, the government agency proposing the fish farm to the meeting.
“We have always been keen to engage with BIM and we will continue to do so. We want to here every side of the argument.”