Government 'taking ownership' of West Cork coastal land without permission, claims councillor

Narrow strips of coastal land in West Cork are being transferred to government departments without informing landowners, according to a local independent councillor.

The issue was raised by Finbarr Harrington in a motion proposed to the recent meeting of Cork County Council’s Western Division held in Clonakilty.

In his motion Mr Harrington asked: “That this council would write to the minister for tourism, Patrick O’Donovan, and the minister for transport, Darragh O’Brien, to seek an explanation as to why either or both of their departments are taking ownership of many parcels of land along our coastline without any consultation, knowledge or consent of the owners of these lands.

“Parcels of land are currently being subsumed into a folio number CK 32771. The registered owner of this land folio is the minister for tourism and transport. Many landowners have no knowledge that this is happening.”

Mr Harrington said that when looking at the folio on the Land Registry website https://www.landdirect.ie, 
it appears that numerous narrow strips of coastal land along large portions of the Beara coast had been transferred to the ownership of the departments of tourism and transport.

He said: “This is a most unusual situation and many of these landowners know nothing about it and have not been informed.”

Most unusual

Independent councillor Alan Coleman said: “I agree it is most unusual. It sounds like something out of the soviet era,” adding that Mr Harrington could consider a career as an investigative journalist.

County Mayor Joe Carroll said: “This can’t be allowed without proper consultation, we should write a letter to the minister.”

Patrick Gerard Murphy of Fianna Fáil said that landowners should be informed of what is happening and if land was being appropriated there should be a public consultation. He added: “It definitely needs to be investigated and clarified. It’s kind of worrying to see this happening underhandedly.” It was agreed to write to the minsters to seek an explanation.

• This article is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme