Planning permission for development on Creeslough Tragedy site granted

Donegal County Council has granted planning permission for a controversial development on the site of the Creeslough tragedy.

The proposed development, submitted by the listed applicants, Annette and Danny Martin Laverty, is for the demolition of an existing dwelling house, and the construction of a new building incorporating a shop, post office, off-licence, a store, a deli, staff welfare facilities, toilets, a forecourt, underground storage tanks and pumps, an ATM, a car wash facility and an outdoor laundrette. 

Donegal County Council had granted planning permission for a development on the site where 10 people were killed in the Creeslough explosion in October 2022; however, An Coimisiún Pleanála overturned that decision in June 2025. 

Victims of the Creeslough tragedy were Shauna Flanagan-Garwe (5) and her father, Robert Garwe (50), Catherine O’Donnell (39) and her son, James Monaghan (13), Leona Harper (14), Jessica Gallagher (24), Martina Martin (49), James O’Flaherty (48), Martin McGill (49) and Hugh Kelly (59).

Several submissions were submitted to Donegal County Council against the new proposals, including one by Damien Tansey Solicitors, acting on behalf of eight clients, all of whom had lost a loved one in the Creeslough tragedy. 

Part of that submission read: “Our clients are deeply distressed and profoundly offended by this application.

“It is submitted without any prior consultation with the bereaved families or the survivors, and without any acknowledgement of the ongoing grief, trauma and suffering that the Creeslough Community continues to endure.

READ NEXT: Appeal against granted Letterkenny 57-bed residential/student blocks plans lodged

“The application is not only premature in the extreme, given that three separate investigations into the cause of the explosion remain ongoing, but it is, in our submission, a serious affront to the dignity and memory of the ten people who tragically lost their lives.”

A separate submission said: “Given the previous explosion, any fuel storage development here warrants extreme caution. 

“The community understandably lacks confidence in a new fuel-related facility beside the original site”

In the planner’s report, it was recommended that the proposals be granted planning permission, with a recommendation arguing that the proposed development “would not injure the amenities of the area, would not be prejudicial to public health, would not endanger public safety by reason of a traffic hazard, and would not have any significant adverse impacts on the environment or ecology of the area.”

Donegal County Council granted planning permission with 17 conditions, and an advice note stating that a fire safety certificate and a dangerous substance application would be required for the development prior to commencement of any works on site.

The developer was also required to provide a deposit of over €64,000 under three conditions, to facilitate the provision of capital works, in the interests of orderly development, and to ensure the satisfactory completion of the development.