Donald Trump seeks permission for coastal protection works

Billionaire businessman Donald Trump wants to build a wall of rock armour along a stretch of the Irish Atlantic coast to stop the ocean blowing away his Doonbeg links course.

His Irish firm, which operates the luxury Doonbeg Golf Resort, is to shortly seek planning permission in a €10m plan to put in place around 200,000 tonnes of large boulders to prevent further erosion of the course along a 2.8km stretch at Doughmore beach facing onto the course.

The resort, on Clare’s Atlantic coast, last year lost substantial ground during the two winter storms at its sixth, ninth, and tenth holes, with the storms removing up to 10m of dune along the beach.

The resort warned that if the coastal protection works to be located at the toe of the sand dunes are not place, it could lose up to 100m of ground in certain places before 2050.

On his first trip to Ireland last year as owner of the Doonbeg resort, Mr Trump promised an investment of €45m at the resort.

However, that spend will not happen without the coastal protection plan getting the go-ahead.

In a statement yesterday, the resort said the expansion of facilities including additional accommodation, leisure facilities, and a banquet hall are being considered.

However, the resort warned that the realisation of these plans “is dependent on the provision of adequate protection from coastal erosion”.

Yesterday, the golf club mounted a public exhibition of the planned works at the local community hall in Doonbeg for locals and others to view the plans. The exhibition continues today.