Minister reverses housing rezoning to protect bats

The Department of the Environment has taken the unprecedented move of directing a local authority to reverse a rezoning due to concerns over a roost of rare and protected species of bats.

Jan O’Sullivan, the junior housing minister, has written to Clare county manager Tom Coughlan directly him to reverse, or “open-space”, a housing rezoning.

The move is in order to protect a population of the Lesser Horseshoe Bat, in a cave near to the zoning site outside Quin village.