Dublin Corporation has rejected any further delay in its £200 milion project for developing a new sewage treatment plant at the Pigeon House harbour site at Ringsend.
Members of the city council's general purposes (engineering) committee were told by a senior official yesterday that no further delay can now be considered in that part of the project covering the area of the proposed site of the sewerage works which supporters of the Dublin "Gateway Project" had hoped would be kept for an interpretative centre at the Pigeon House Harbour.
Mr Matt Twomey, in a report to councillors, said that ample opportunity had been provided for making appropriate submissions before the Minister for the Environment had certified the relevant Environmental Impact Study in June.
Any further delay in the project would seriously jeopardise it, he said.
However, Mr Twomey said that the corporation had "no objection in principle" to the development of the Gateway Project on some nearby site at some time in the future, although the corporation had no such site available itself.
Commenting on the corporation report last night, local councillor and Green Party TD for Dublin South-East, Mr John Gormley, in whose constituency the facility is to be built, said that supporters of the Gateway Project, including himself, now hoped to persuade the corporation and the EU Commission, which is providing most of the funding for the project, to construct the new waste treatment plant a few feet back from the quay wall at the harbour.
This would allow people to continue to walk around the harbour perimeter.
Mr Gormley added that his colleague, Green Party MEP Ms Patricia McKenna, had already approached the EU Commission in Brussels to explore this option.