An Taisce dismisses members

AN TAISCE has dismissed a number of its members in the west amid claims they were trying to infiltrate and destroy the conservation body.

Six men, including builders, farmers and a fishery officer joined the organisation last May, but less than six months later they were turfed out without explanation.

The men, from Galway and Mayo, paid a €40 joining fee and had received membership cards. The fee along with €10 interest has now been returned to them.

The group claims it wanted to work with An Taisce in helping to end a bitter dispute over the building of one-off houses in the west.

However An Taisce, which has 5,000 members nationwide, claims the men had motives that were contrary to its ethos.

An Taisce spokesperson Ian Lumley said some of the six had submitted planning applications for houses in Mayo and Galway, and therefore couldn’t join.

“There is nobody that would allow people with contrary objectives to infiltrate them. Any group like say the GAA would do exactly what we did,” he said.

An Taisce is adamant that it doesn’t have to allow all members of the public join the organisation.

“We are a non-government heritage organisation. We are not a state body,” Mr Lumley said.

An Taisce gets €70,000 annually in state funding and its members can be selected to sit on the national planning appeals body, An Bord Pleanála.

In the past the group has expelled members in Cork and Wicklow in controversial circumstances.