Seanad debates
Thursday, 10 October 2002
Address by President of the European Parliament.
Let me take the habitats directive as an area where I would like to see a loosening up. In the late 1980s the community council in Doonbeg got the idea to talk to Shannon Development and try and build a golf course. Shannon Development found someone to do it and it was designed by Greg Norman. Someone came to do an environmental impact study. He lifted the sea grass on the proposed links course and found a snail in it. I went down and met this gentleman. The snail is a large family man and there are large tracts of these families of snails blotted around the place. Nobody knew the snail was there because it stays under the grass. It is about half the size of my small fingernail and its Latin name is vertigo angustior. This snail was all over the place so I went down to the community council with a great question for a politician. Does Brussels believe more in us or snails? I said that what Brussels was trying to do is to promote development and sustainability at the same time.
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