It compounds a number of other refusal decisions, overturning permissions by Roscommon County Council, including four other developments around Lough Key.

The decision also vindicates the role of public participation in decision making in allowing local residents, in this case the residents of the Rock of Doon, as well as environmental and heritage groups such as An Taisce, in appealing inadequately considered local authority  decisions to An Bord Pleanala.

An Bord Pleanala has refused permission for a 120 bed-roomed Spa Hotel at Doon Townland, Boyle. The development was refused on the following two grounds:

1. The proposed development is located in a visually sensitive, unspoilt wooded shoreline setting within the Lough Key Study Area on a site which is designated as an area of high amenity value as set out in the current Roscommon County Development Plan and the Lough Key Study Area, which seek to ensure that such areas are carefully managed so as not to have a significant impact on the landscape. It is considered that the proposed four/five storey hotel and ancillary facilities proximate to the lakeshore, by reason of its inappropriate design, overall height, scale and mass, would be a prominent obtrusive feature in the landscape which would be highly visible in views both from the lake and from the adjoining road and would impact on the architectural heritage of National Monuments in the vicinity of the site including the Abbey on Trinity Island and Inchmacherin Church on Church Island. The proposed development would seriously injure visual amenities of the area and would conflict with the policies of the development plan, which seek to protect Lough Key, notwithstanding the variations to the development plan, which relate to this site. The proposed development would, therefore, be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.

2. The Board is not satisfied based on the information submitted with the application including the Environmental Impact Statement that the proposed development would not destroy/damage a number of habitats which may host a number of protected species and habitats of ecological value, including species listed under Annex 2 of the Habitats Directive (Council Directive 92/43/EEC) and species protected under the Wildlife Acts, 1976-2000. The proposed development would, therefore, be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.

A spokesman for An Taisce said that this case has exposed serious deficiencies with regard to Roscommon County Council’s compliance with its own development plan, the protection of national monuments under Irish Law, as well as EU Directives on Environmental Impact Assessment and wildlife habitats.

There are already a range of complaints and legal actions at various stages being taken by the European Commission against the Irish Government over breaches of the Environmental Impact Assessment and Habitats Directives.  This has already resulted in legal action being taken by the European Commission against Ireland, relating to the ecological damage caused in conjunction with development at Lough Rynn, Co. Leitrim. A number of locations in Co. Roscommon are also the subject of complaint, in particular developments along the River Shannon, which may result in future legal action.

It is regrettable that Roscommon County Council has so ill-advisedly allowed so much time and resources to be consumed in this and other inappropriately located developments around Lough Key in recent years, while at the same time failing to act strategically in directing hotel development to locations which would comply with European and National Law and the relevant Local Development Plans and provisions. As there is a need for a quality hotel development to serve the Boyle and Lough Key area, An Taisce hopes that this proposal will lead to a suitably located and designed scheme in the areas identified as suitable for tourism accommodation in the Lough Key Study 1981.