Paschal has questioned the new development plans for Dublin Bay by the Dublin Port Company. Their plans to infill fifty two acres of Dublin Bay should not be allowed until the Department of Environment has completed it’s plan to create a Special Protection Area. Additionally any plan must take account of the history of severe flooding in East Wall, North Strand and North Wall and any future plans must decrease the flooding risk, not increase it.
Please see below for Paschal’s submission.
“I wish to comment on the application that has been presented to An Bord Pleanala by the Dublin Port Company for the infill of fifty-two acres of Dublin Bay.
The risk of flooding is an ever present threat. The devastation and trauma experienced by residents along the sea front from flooding in recent years is something nobody would wish to see again. I would strongly urge the Board to reject this application as any such infill of the Bay would lead to the deprivation of a flood plain for North Strand and North Wall and East Wall, Dublin 3. Concern exists among local people that the infill of the Bay would lead to further flooding problems in the area. Unfortunately, I do not believe the potential risk has been adequately assessed by the submission to the Board by Dublin Port Company.
I feel that this application is premature on the basis that the new area map for SPA (Special Protection Area) for Dublin Bay has been published by Minister John Gormley and is awaiting implementation. Local people have great concerns that the only assessment of potential environmental damage should this development take place, has been carried out by Dublin Port Company. I and many people are sceptical of such an assessment given the way it has in the past pre-empted broader based evaluations of the public interest in regard to this development.
As a result, I feel the application submitted by Dublin Port Company to be hasty and inappropriate.”