Upgrade works at Trump's Doonbeg won't impact on protected snail, says report
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Eco-experts employed by US president-elect Donald Trump’s Trump Doonbeg golf resort in Co Clare flew over 200 resort soil sub-samples for analysis to Britain this year as part of a survey for the tiny 2mm protected snail at the resort, the Vertigo Angustior.
That is according to a new report lodged with Clare County Council on behalf of Trump Doonbeg which states that upgrade works for the golf resort will not impact the EU-protected snail species.
The report forms part of Mr Trump’s TIGL Ireland Enterprises Ltd’s updated planning application which is now a scaled-down version of what was first proposed earlier this year.
The application, lodged in February, proposed the change of use of Doughmore House at the resort from office/administration use to leisure/recreation use and the scheme included the construction of pickleball courts, a basketball court, and two soft play areas at Doughmore House.
However, in the revised plans now lodged with the council, a planning report states that no works are proposed at Doughmore House and “this adjustment reduces the project's potential impact on the surrounding area, including sensitive environmental areas”.
There are tens of millions of the tiny snail at the course and at Shannon airport in 2014 shortly after purchasing the resort, Mr Trump told reporters that he would be a friend to the vertigo angustior at the site.
The council stalled the project in April due to the impact the project could have on the vertigo angustior and other planning issues.
Now, in a new report prepared by planning consultant, Conor Healy of Cunnane Stratton Reynolds for TIGL Ireland Enterprises, he states that the proposed works at O’Dea’s Barn and Healy House at the resort will not affect vertigo angustior within the Carrowmore Dunes special area of conservation.
Mr Healy states that survey findings which cover the habitat conditions at both O’Dea’s Barn and Healy House confirm that neither site contains suitable habitat for vertigo angustior.
Highlighting the painstaking work to determine the conservation status of the vertigo angustior, survey and monitoring of vertigo angustior at Doonbeg was carried out on May 6 and 7.
The report states that the 200 subsamples — approximately 20kg in total were flown to Britain and at a lab, each subsample was laid out in an aluminium tray, and dried for several weeks.
Once dry, each subsample was teased apart, agitated, and sieved vertically and a total of 133 vertigo angustior shells were counted from the 50 sampling locations, an overall increase from the previous year.
The report by Dr Chris Gleed-Owen concluded that monitoring at Doonbeg in 2024 suggests that vertigo angustior is in terminal decline in the maritime grassland of the dune special area of conservation.
The report states that “conversely, vertigo angustior now appears to be more common within the golf course per se”.
The report states that where the habitat is a suitable grassland community, and a build up of thatch has not occurred, vertigo angustior appears to do well in a range of sward heights.
The report states that based on the Conservation Objectives for the SAC site at Doonbeg (which lies outside the golf course) the conservation status of vertigo angustior at Doonbeg is currently unfavourable.