Green TD Ciaran Cuffe wants the Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company to rebuild the Victorian Railway building on Dun Laoghaire's Carlisle Pier. The structures on the Carlisle Pier were demolished in September of last year, and Deputy Cuffe reported the demolition to An Bord Pleanála in October, claiming that the demolition breached planning regulations and should have gone for approval. The Board ruled that the demolition of Carlisle Pier did not constitute 'exempted development' and therefore required planning permission. Cuffe has requested a meeting with the harbour company as soon as possible.
A statement on his website says:
“I welcome An Board Pleanála decision which holds that the Harbour Company were not authorised to demolish the pier in the manner in which they did.
“Few would shed any tears for the removal of the newer 1960s building on the pier but beneath it was an old Victorian Railway building that was a part of Dún Laoghaire's heritage.
“I think independent semi state companies should adhere to the highest planning standards. I am disappointed that the Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company demolished the building despite my writing to them stating that the demolition was illegal. They wiped away more than a century of our history and heritage, without asking the people of Dún Laoghaire for their opinion.
“I understand that much of the original building has been salvaged by the Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company. I hope that they will now restore the nineteenth century Railway Building that stood intact on the site concealed underneath the twentieth century building.”