#PortStudio - Chief executive of Dublin Port Company Eamonn O’Reilly has told Dublin City Council he “would have an open mind” on the development of a Hollywood-style film studio on the Poolbeg peninsula.

As The Irish Times writes in recent weeks Mr O’Reilly had described the plans to develop an €80 million film studio on port lands as “daft” and “a good old-fashioned attempted land-grab”.

In a letter to the newspaper last month he said port lands on the peninsula would be developed “exclusively for port uses”.

Windmill Lane Studios founder James Morris and film producer Alan Moloney want to develop an €80 million studio complex at the new Poolbeg strategic development zone (SDZ), a 34 hectare site in the city’s east end.

U2 singer Bono has advocated for the project and lobbied former minister for the environment Alan Kelly to support the studio. Actors Liam Neeson and Cillian Murphy have also spoken in support of the project.

About half of the land in the new development zone is taken up by the former Irish Glass bottle company and adjoining Fabrizia lands. The council has designated 80 per cent of these lands for apartments, with the remaining 20 per cent of this site earmarked for an office and retail “buffer zone” separating the housing from industrial land banks.

Almost all the remaining lands in the zone are port company-owned. Despite having previously ruled out the studio, Mr O’Reilly on Monday raised hopes that Hollywood could possibly still come to the city’s east end.

To read more the newspaper reports here.