“Saving Bantry Bay shouldn’t have to come at such a high financial cost for local communities.”
Bantry LEA candidate Holly McKeeve-Cairns says that communities across West Cork are paying too high a price for poor decision-making at both local and national government level.
“Bantry’s Protect Our Native Kelp group needs to raise €20,000 by May 14 to fund their legal challenge to a bad licence decision. Save Our Skibbereen have raised almost €35,000 for their High Court challenge.
Imagine what the local community could do with that kind of money, instead of having to pay lawyers to over turn decisions that shouldn’t have been made in the first place? “
McKeever-Cairns has called on all elected representatives to commit to asking more questions and to show more transparency about the decisions they make on our behalf. “Jobs are hugely important, but they can’t come at any price – or, worse still, at the expense of other people’s living, as we see so often with any marine or fisheries-related decisions,” she said.
“At the most basic level, you have to ask how anyone involved in the decision-making process can see the words ‘plastics’ and ‘factory’ side by side and not think to ask questions.
Does West Cork need investment and development? Of course it does. But it has to be future-proof and sustainable. And shouldn’t come at the cost of our vital tourism, agriculture or fishing industries.”
McKeever-Cairns has called for all elected representatives to pay more attention to the small print ‘before’ decisions are made. “Rocking up to support a protest against your own decision, and watching your communities raising crazy sums of money that could be put to better use than funding a lawyer’s holiday home in West Cork isn’t the best way of doing this. We all need to do what we can to demand future-proof investment in our environment to ensure sustainable local employment.”
