Trump International Golf Club on the west coast of Ireland is building a banquet hall that can accommodate 320 guests.
President Donald Trump’s visit to Scotland causes division among locals
President Trump’s visit to Scotland has sparked a backlash after protesters held up signs outside an Aberdeen golf course linking him to Epstein.
DUBLIN, Feb 24 (Reuters) – The Council of Ireland on Tuesday approved plans by the family of U.S. President Donald Trump to build a ballroom at a golf course in the west of Ireland, subject to the condition that it come up with a plan to help protect the small snails that live on the property.
The Trump International Golf Club in Doonbeg on the West Coast applied in December to build a ballroom that could seat 320 people, and Trump’s son Eric told the Sunday Independent it would be “the greatest ballroom in the country.”
But environmentalists objected that more steps needed to be taken to improve the status of the rare Vertigo angustia snail, which is protected by the European Union’s Directive on Habitats for the Maintenance or Restoration of Rare Species.
Clare County Council planners granted planning permission subject to 14 conditions, including that the golf club submit plans to support snail conservation and monitoring before work begins.
The Irish Environment Society had argued that no new permission would be granted until a court order relating to the course’s original 1999 plans requiring the rare snail’s status to be “maintained or improved” was satisfied.
Several other local organizations have written in support of the planned banquet hall, citing potential employment opportunities at the resort, which would employ 300 people during the peak summer season. Many locals believe President Trump secured their livelihood when he purchased the course in 2014.
According to the plan, the new ballroom will have an area of 1,240 square meters, a small portion of the 8,360 square meters of ballroom planned for the White House. President Trump stayed in a hotel 300 kilometers (180 miles) from the capital, Dublin, during an official visit to Ireland in 2019.
Upon taking office, he placed the Trump Organization in a trust controlled by his children, but he remains the beneficiary.
In 2020, President Trump was denied a planning permit to construct a seawall to protect the course from coastal erosion because planners were not satisfied that the proposed development would not negatively impact the dune habitat at the site.
