A controversial structure is to be allowed go ahead near a holy well in Tipperary.
Adding to the objectors' anger is the fact that the grounds for planning approval by the authorities include the fact that the new structure will be screened by a mound which happens to be an illegal dump.
A gatekeeper's accommodation unit, to be built by Iarnród Éireann, is close to St Patrick's Well, an old monastic site on the outskirts of Clonmel which attracts thousands of visitors each year.
A fifth-century cross and a 15th-century Cisterician church, both designated national monuments, form part of the St Patrick's Well site.
Objectors to the development are concerned about its visual impact and what they believe is a threat to the quality of drinking water from the well.
An appeal against the development has been lodged with An Bord Pleanála.
In approving the planning application last month, South Tipperary County Council's planning staff said objectors had raised "valid" concerns about pollution and the potential damage to the visual amenity of the area.
However, in a report prepared the week before planning permission was granted, they said the accommodation unit "will not have any visual impact on the St Patrick's Well site as the proposed development cannot be seen from the well due to the existence of a large mound of earth placed between the well site and the proposed development site.
"This mound of earth has been created by the filling of land without a grant of permission," it said.
Planning permission was granted on March 5th.
The report added that the development would not have a detrimental impact on the well as it could not be seen from the historic site, and the effluent treatment system proposed by Iarnród Éireann would prevent the direct discharge of untreated water into local groundwater.
Mr P.J. Long, the secretary of the St Patrick's Day Society, which maintains the well, later wrote to the county manager, Mr Ned Gleeson, to express concern that "what the council acknowledges is an 'unauthorised' dump of clay and building materials is accepted as a screen for a proposed development".
Mr Long told The Irish Times that the landfill was a mixture of clay and builders' rubble.
"Surely if unauthorised landfills are such a problem in Wicklow and other counties, they can hardly be acceptable 'screens' for unsightly developments in South Tipperary."
Iarnród Éireann, in correspondence with the council through a consultancy firm during the planning process, also said the development would not be visible from the well as a large amount of fill material had been dumped between the two locations.
The proposed structure would be a cabin-style, non-residential unit, to be used by an Iarnród Éireann gatekeeper, with car-parking and an associated foul water treatment system.
The council granted permission for a temporary structure only so that the impact on the well site could be reassessed after five years.
A local area action plan, adopted by the county council last year, says it is essential that the "spiritual nature of the site" be left untouched and that there be no new developments which would harm the setting or the approaches to it.
In its appeal to An Bord Pleanála, the St Patrick's Day Society said the well site was Clonmel's premier tourist attraction.
The unauthorised landfill, it pointed out, could be removed or levelled in the future.
Mr Jim Keating, the council's senior planning and environment engineer, said an "unfortunate choice of words" had been used in the officials' report.
Even without the landfill, the development would not have been visually obtrusive.
He said the landfill material was mainly topsoil and rocks cleared from building sites in advance of development. The council, he said, was alerted to the unauthorised dumping two years ago.
It had told the land-owner to stop work immediately, and he had complied with this. No decision had been taken on whether to begin enforcement proceedings against him.
