Oral hearing into Dun Laoghaire cruise berth plan starts tomorrow

AN BORD Pleanála will commence an oral hearing tomorrow into a controversial application for an €18m cruise berth facility at Dún Laoghaire Harbour.

The application was submitted in July by Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company on behalf of the Dún Laoghaire Stakeholder Group. The group – which also includes Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council – believes that an enlarged cruise berth facility will attract operators of larger, new generation liners to the town.

As this is a strategic infrastructure project, the application was made directly to An Bord Pleanála instead of going through the normal local authority planning process.

However, there is widespread local opposition to the plan and it’s understood that over 150 submissions were received by the planning board. Folk singer Christy Moore, who lives in Monkstown, is among those objecting.

People Before Profit TD and chairman of the the Save Our Seafront (SOS) group, Richard Boyd Barrett, is due to make a presentation to the oral hearing tomorrow morning.

He will argue that the planned expenditure of €18 million represents “a dangerous financial gamble”, particularly because Dublin Port is simultaneously constructing a new cruise berth aimed at winning the same cruise ship business as Dun Laoghaire.

The hearings will take place in the Academy Plaza Hotel, Cathal Brugha Street, Dublin 1, from 10am tomorrow (October 14). They are expected to last for eight days.