The decision was taken at Tuesday's meeting in Carndonagh of the Inishowen Electoral Area Committee.

It follows a recent public meeting at the Gateway Hotel in Buncrana, when local people involved in the building industry came together to voice their grievances and agree a way forward, particularly in relation to water and sanitary services in north east Inishowen.

A lobby group was formed at the meeting, the Construction Industry of Inishowen Association, and a formal request for a meeting was sent to the council.

Colrs Rena Donaghey who attended the meeting at the Gateway said it was a stormy affair. "I was one of the councillors at that meeting. I tell you, you would need to have been at that meeting to hear the flack that we had to take.

"Basically they can't understand why, when the Pollan Dam is there, it's taking so long to get water down to East Inishowen. At one stage we were asked should we, all six Inishowen councillors, resign if we can't put pressure on officials and get results.

"They are extremely frustrated. I told them what the process was and they formed a committee on the day, asked if they could come in to meet us. I think they were extremely annoyed too, with the times that are in it, and they have so many applications in, two or three times put in, and then time ran out, had to be thrown out and put back in again."

Colr Dermot McLaughlin asked whether the capacity of the Pollan Dam would be enough to meet the needs of all the proposed new developments. Senior engineer Con McLaughlin confirmed that the water supply there would be more than adequate, but there are many other issues that have to be taken into consideration.

Colr Bernard McGuinness said that it wasn't the case of elected politicians ganging up against civil servants. "We as councillors are being vilified as well as the officials."

The big picture

He added: "There's another side to this. How many houses are to be built in east Inishowen. Are all these planning applications to go ahead, with seven hundred new houses between Quigley's Point and Inishowen Head? There are legitimate concerns in relation to that scale of development. It's not just the water. Balanced regional planning and everything else needs to be taken into consideration."

Colrs Rena Donaghey and Marian McDonald said that a list of questions for the council had been drawn up at the public meeting. Members agreed that it would be "proper procedure" to have a list of those questions before meeting the group.

Colr Padraig Mac Lochlainn agreed that the need to safeguard the rights of existing residents, and was indignant at the suggestion that councillors should resign.

"We are not accountable solely to developers or the construction indusry.

"Any arrogant s**** at a public meeting who calls for our resignation is not to be accepted. We are accountable to an electorate of 33,000 people. We're elected.