Minister for the Environment Dick Roche announced last July that the state was going ahead with plans to buy the island . . . which has been a centre of dispute for over 20 years . . . and develop it as a national park.

But Peter Callery, a director of An Blascaod Mor Teo, which owns most of the island, said last week that he does not believe the deal will ever go through. "I think the state is not going to honour the agreement, " he said. "They are equivocating. The statement that they made as of two weeks ago that they are committed to going ahead with the management plan is not true."

An integral part of the agreement with the state is the allocation of 25% of landing rights to An Blascaod Mor Teo, which also operates the ferry service between An Daingean and the island. Last week, a spokesman for the Office of Public Works (OPW) said this part of the deal "may or may not" be included in the agreement.

"Some concerns have been expressed about the legality of [the landing rights deal], with competition laws and so on, " he said. "We have sought legal advice and we are still waiting on it, for this and other issues within the agreement."

Callery denied this, and claimed he received a letter from the OPW dated 6 February of this year acknowledging that they were in possession of legal opinion on the issue and were examining it.

"This has been going on for more than five years now, " he said. "There have been continual delays on the state's side, accompanied by promises that they would honour an agreement that they now do not intend to keep."

If the state, for whatever reason, fails to honour that part of the agreement, the whole deal may fall, which could result in the general public being refused access to the island by frustrated landowners.

According to Callery, the heads of agreement were hammered out in 2002, but since then there has been very little progress. "Why did the state enter into an agreement three years and eight months ago without checking out their position first or telling us they had concerns?" he asked.