A leading Dublin hotelier and developer, Noel O'Callaghan, is to be prosecuted by Dublin Corporation for the illegal demolition of Archer's garage in Fenian Street. The chairman of the City Council's planning committee says he should be forced to reinstate the building at his own expense.

Mr O'Callaghan already faces a fine of up to £1 million and/or a prison sentence of up to two years for the demolition of Archer's, which was a List 1 building. Such buildings have an unqualified status: they must be preserved, as opposed to List 2 buildings, which can be subject to planning authority decisions.

Mr O'Callaghan could not be reached to comment. Erne Street, which runs alongside the premises, was closed for a period over the weekend while the demolition was under way.

On Thursday a spokeswoman for the corporation's traffic department said no road closure order had been sought to facilitate the demolition work.

After being alerted that the late-1940s building was in the process of being demolished last Saturday, Mr Cuffe said he had appealed to those carrying out the work to stop, but they refused. "Because it was a bank holiday weekend, there was nobody who could be called to stop the demolition."

He said the corporation needed to put proper procedures in place to halt illegal weekend demolitions. At the very least, the dangerous buildings division, which has a 24-hour emergency number, should be supplied with a copy of the city plan showing all of the city's listed buildings.

Archer's garage, a relic of the romantic era of motoring in Ireland, was scheduled for protection on List 1 of the new city plan, adopted last March. On Tuesday a senior corporation official confirmed that Mr O'Callaghan would find himself "landed in the courts" over the demolition.

Mr Sean Carey, deputy city manager, said the corporation was treating the matter very seriously because it involved the demolition of a List 1 building. It fully intended to prosecute the hotelier.

"It was listed under due process in the city plan and that plan has to be protected," he added.

Deirdre Kelly, of the Living City Group, who has fought numerous battles to save Dublin, said the Archer's demolition was disgraceful.

"I really thought those days had gone," she said. "We have a very small stock of buildings like this, and it is vital to ensure that they are protected."

John Graby, director of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, described Archer's garage as an important mid-20th-century building.

"We need to be conscious of the fact that contemporary buildings need protection in the same way as older buildings, such as Georgian houses."

Mr O'Callaghan's architects, Anthony Reddy and Associates, told The Irish Times that they were as surprised as anyone by the demolition. They had been working on plans for an office development on the largely derelict site, where the former garage was the only surviving building.

Tony Reddy, who heads the firm, said there had been some confusion over the status of Archer's. It had been on List 2 in the 1991 city plan, then it was "de-listed" in the new draft published last year and finally upgraded to List 1 in response to representations from the Dublin Civic Trust.

Under new planning legislation currently before the Dail, it is proposed to increase the maximum term of imprisonment for the illegal demolition of listed buildings from two years to five. The maximum fine of £1 million, on indictment in the Circuit Court, remains unchanged.

The current penalties were introduced in the wake of the illegal demolition by a consortium of local businessmen of the former Drogheda Grammar School in July 1989. At that time, they were fined £10,000, the maximum which could then be imposed, as the case judge complained at the time.

Mr O'Callaghan owns three hotels, the Mont Clare, Davenport and Alexander, and is currently completing another hotel on the corner of Harcourt Street and Cuffe Street, incorporating the birthplace of Sir Edward Carson and the former home of the playwright George Fitzmaurice.

The Carson house, 4 Harcourt Street, was vandalised after its importance was highlighted both by An Taisce and the Ulster Unionist Party.

Though roofless and with damaged plasterwork throughout, it was later scheduled under the National Monuments Acts and is now being restored.