The Department of the Environment says the disappearance of a rare and protected butterfly from a site outside Ennis, earmarked for a €50 million retail park, is a matter of serious concern to be investigated by its heritage branch.According to today's Irish Times newspaper, in a late bid to prevent Clare County Council from granting planning permission for the retail park proposal by Galway developer Stephen Harris, the department has lodged a fresh objection on environmental grounds, recommending that "planning permission not be granted".
The department's submission follows the developer's lodgement of a report last month with the planners stating that colonies of the protected Marsh Fritillary (left) butterfly were now extinct at the 48-acre site. Populations of the butterfly were moved in autumn 2004 to the site now earmarked for the retail park to make way for the Ennis bypass. This was done by the bypass contractors, Gama Construction Ltd.
A planning application for the retail park was lodged in 2006. The presence of the butterfly on the site resulted in the Department of the Environment lodging an initial submission with the council to state that the development would be contrary to the aims of the EU habitats directive.
