Clare Council accused of racism over proposed ban on outsiders
by Gordon Deegan
CLARE County Council has been accused of institutional racism over its proposal to impose a general ban on outsiders building houses in parts of the county.
Making his charge, Clare’s most famous outsider, former Clare Labour TD, Dr Moosajee Bhamjee, said the Council was putting in place an apartheid system in the county’s planning process.
Dr Bhamjee was responding to the Council’s proposed policy of generally not permitting non indigenous persons building homes in the open countryside in areas under high development pressure and vulnerable landscapes.
Dr Bhamjee’s comments come as the Council puts on public display today the revised Draft Development Plan for one month to allow the public make submissions.
If the draft plan is adopted outsiders unlike local or indigenous people will generally not be permitted to build homes in vulnerable landscapes which encompasses all of Clare’s coastline and in the open countryside under development pressure.
The Council defines an indigenous person as any person born in the area and with immediate relatives resident there, or any person who has resided in the area and/or whose parents have been resident there for a minimum of 10 years.
Responding to the proposal, Dr Bhamjee said if the policy was in place when he first moved to Clare he could not build a house in the rural area in which he lives today.
Dr Bhamjee who made history in 1992 when he became the first South African born Indian to be elected to Dáil E´ireann said the proposal is similar to a policy that was in place when he lived in South Africa, which banned Indians from buying property in certain areas.
"I’ve had the experience of people telling me where I could and could not live and I do not want that to happen to people wishing to live in Clare in the future."
"I am very angry and upset. The Council’s proposal goes against EU law which allows citizens to travel freely within the EU. It worries me and is evidence of the creeping racism that is becoming apparent throughout the country. I doubt very much if the proposed provision is constitutional," he said.
© The Examiner, 1999