The Department for Infrastructure in the North of Ireland under the stewardship and direction of avowed nationalist – Sein Fein’s John O’Dowd and the previous erstwhile nationalist Minister Nicola Mallon of the SDLP failed to consult Donegal County Council, the citizens of Donegal or the Irish government's own environment agency over plans which would entail discharges into river systems which are connected to the river systems in the Republic of Ireland. It was hugely embarrassing for John O’Dowd who has for decades been part of a political movement that claims the reunification of Ireland as its reason for existence.
The planning inquiry has now being postponed twice and in both instances the inherent issues were in relation to water. The Dalradian project needs water and lots of it, for extraction to run the mining production equipment and filtration systems and for discharge of problematic elements of the gold extraction waste. It is believed by campaigners that Dalradian has only incorporated extraction of 10% of needed water, ninety percent of extraction and where it might come from is hidden in the comprehensive planning papers. The issue never got that far as Brexit reared its ugly and hugely embarrassing head on Wednesday morning.
The Department for Infrastructure did not foresee that omissions of meaningful consultations with the Republic of Ireland constitutes breaches of European environmental and political law. As it stands the British government has not dealt with transboundary issues or even considered it necessary. European law still holds sway until the British Government creates some form of legislative structure to deal with issues which may have effects for the environment and health of its near EU neighbour. The Northern Ireland Office and the very compliant Stormont executive in their haste to facilitate American and Canadian financial investment overlooked their own international obligations. After an intractable and bruising period of post Brexit negotiations over the North and its place in the UK and Europe another intractable issue rears its head. The Dalradian project and the discharge of mine waste could poison the waters of the Norths nearest neighbours in the EU.
Wednesday at the Strule Arts Centre in Omagh was awash with well - heeled and highly - polished government barristers and lawyers, not one of them saw what was coming. Just before Christmas a highly effective campaigner contacted the Belfast Telegraph senior journalist Garett Hargan. Ciaran McClean - the well-known and highly respected son of the late civil rights activist, Paddy Joe McClean - stated that the Department of Infrastructure was failing to consult on transboundary issues. McClean made the Chief Executive of the Planning Appeals Commission aware , the Irish government were made aware, the Department of Infrastructure was made aware, nothing was done. It was the anti-gold mine campaigners from Omagh, Greencastle and Donegal who blew the lack of trans boundary consultation out of the water.
The managing director of Dalradian Gold NI had to sit and listen as the constitutional threads unravelled. His boss in Canada once extolled and waxed lyrical about the most user friendly administration he had ever worked with. He loved telling the story of his family roots in County Antrim. He never foresaw the constant difficulties within the DFI in the North of Ireland. The DFI never had the knowledge or expertise to deal with a huge and controversial planning application. It did not have the nous to realise that there would be serious political difficulties in pushing the application forward. The DFI acted in a highly negligent and unprofessional manner. The DFI appointed a company with very close financial links to the gold industry to manage the planning application and advise senior civil servants who then would advise the minister. The expert consultancy companies representatives have been absent from the planning inquiry. The Department has failed to deliver a workable planning structure to deal with a planning application riddled with inconsistencies.
The anti-gold mine campaigners were once described by mining executives as’ welly wearing farmers’. Disappointingly, for all those attempting to rail road through this most controversial and dangerous of projects, the welly wearing farmers have produced community leaders with highly sophisticated and articulate attributes. It was the welly wearing farmers of Omagh, Greencastle and Donegal who blew the establishment out of the water on Wednesday morning in Omagh. They have left the British Government and Stormont Executive with a conundrum it would appear they do not have the expertise or intellectually capacity to either solve or deal with. As with Brexit it will be Europe who will come up with the solutions. It may be wise to include the welly wearing farmers of the North West of Ireland in any future deliberations.
What is being consistently exposed through the short tortuous hours of the planning inquiry is the failure of the neo-liberalist approach to planning. The concept of light touch regulation has created critical problems and threw up deep lying inconsistencies in planning and constitutional law. The gold mining executives in Toronto and New York have realised that their ‘wild west’ attitude to planning and the environment does not sit well when confronted with intelligence and sophisticated competitive actions. One campaigner stated on Wednesday that the planning application should be buried in the bog it aims to destroy. One thing is for certain – ignorance and hubris will never solve an intractable problem.
⏩Mick Collins is a trade union co-ordinator and analyst from the North West of Ireland.
