Clamour as causeway handed to developer

Colm Heatley on controversial building plans for a Northern treasure.

IT’S the jewel in the crown of the North’s tourist industry but it has quickly turned into a thorn in the side of the DUP.

Since 2000, the Giant’s Causeway is without a visitors’ centre — the result of a fire — and hundreds of thousands tourists arriving there are facilitated by staff working out of a wooden hut.

Various organisations, over the past seven years, have tendered to build a centre and it was widely assumed that the amenity would be paid for out of the public purse.

After all, the Giant’s Causeway is the North’s only Unesco World Heritage site.

But when the DUP’s Environment Minister Arlene Foster revealed in September that she “was of a mind” to approve the development tender to self-proclaimed property tycoon Seymour Sweeney, it caused an instant political row.

Mr Sweeney, it emerged within hours, was a member of the DUP and a good friend of Ian Paisley Jnr. Ms Foster said she was not aware of Mr Sweeney’s DUP ties.

Furthermore, the decision to hand the contract to a private developer was contrary not only to public expectations, but flew in the face of the opinion of the National Trust, which is entrusted with the site.

Long-established protocol suggests that on a site of such significance as the Giant’s Causeway, development would remain in the hands of the government.

Under Mr Sweeney’s proposal, he planned to build a visitors’ centre and a restaurant. The investment would come from his pocket and the profits would go back into it.

Public concern became even more pronounced after it was revealed that Mr Paisley had bought a house from the developer.

The waters were further muddied when new revelations showed Mr Paisley Jnr had also supported the developer in a fishing licence application.

The fact that Ian Paisley Jnr initially stated “I know of him” added to public concerns about the lobbying process.

But Ms Foster, Mr Paisley and their DUP colleague Nigel Dodds, who as tourism minister approved the project, all deny any wrongdoing.

They insist Mr Sweeney secured the right to develop on his own merit.

This opinion is not shared in wider political circles.

All of the North’s other political parties have called for a public inquiry into how Mr Sweeney emerged as the favoured developer.

He himself last month suggested that Unesco had approved of his plans. But Unesco rejected the claim and said it would never endorse any private developer for such a sensitive site.

Mr Sweeney is not, as such, a major developer. He has, in some cases, controversially built apartments and houses in towns dotted along the north Antrim coast but other companies in the North dwarf him.

One such developer is Peter Curistan, whose company created Belfast’s flagship, the Odyssey Arena.

Mr Curistan, a self-made businessman from west Belfast, stepped into the row in September when he volunteered to build the visitors’ centre at his own expense and hand it over to the National Trust.

The DUP’s enthusiasm to give the contract to Mr Sweeney has left the party isolated.

A huge section of public opinion is opposed to any private developer having a vested interest in the Giant’s Causeway.

Allowing a private developer to pay for a project that would otherwise have been funded by public money, is in keeping with the DUP’s economic policies. But whereas saving public expenditure by cutting down a bloated civil service is popular with many voters, allowing Mr Sweeney to build on part of the North’s heritage most certainly isn’t.

For now, the DUP’s ministers are sticking by their decision but it looks unlikely that Mr Sweeney will be allowed to build the centre.