Friday, April 15, 2011
A "FORGOTTEN PARADISE" was being destroyed by the multi-billion plans to turn the Ringsend, Irishtown and Sandymount area into a "new Manhattan", solicitor Damien Cassidy told members of the European Parliament.
He wants them to declare illegal a section of the Irish planning laws that allows Dublin Docklands Development Authority to build without allowing members of the public to object or appeal planning decisions in the usual way.
"You declare that bats must be allowed to remain in the roofs of houses and that slugs must be preserved. Now I ask that you ensure humans are treated properly," the campaigner told the parliament’s Petitions Committee.
The DDDA plans to develop almost 100 acres on the Poolbeg peninsula with homes for 10,000 people in high-rise blocks of up to 15 storeys and office space for 16,000 workers. Last week, the authority started public consultation for their 30-year masterplan to develop the port area. They say they want to be ready for when growth returns to the economy.
"We know there has to be development but we must not be denied the opportunity of objecting — every country in the EU has a planning process. If you give the green light to operate planning permission by decree you say that people like myself who have lived in the area for over 50 years have no rights," Mr Cassidy said.
He read from Kate O’Brien’s book, Land of Spices, where she described "standing by the sea wall and she smelt and heard and looked again at this unchanging, forgotten paradise."
Mr Cassidy, however, will have to lodge a new petition since the committee decided he did not have a case under EU legislation but agreed that having heard him explain about Section 25, he can resubmit. Undaunted, the man who took a case against Dublin city council over smells from the Ringsend sewage treatment plant, told the MEPs he would be back.<
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