Details of the new £12 million, 680-berth Dun Laoghaire marina will be announced on Tuesday and it is expected to be completed in 2001. It brings to an end a saga that has run for 10 years.
The marina will be the State's largest and will incorporate two breakwaters between Dun Laogh aire's West Pier and ferry terminal, marina service buildings, an amenity area, a boat hoist and slipway improvements.
An Bord Pleanala approved planning permission for the project last January.
Preparatory work on the project was funded by a £300,000 grant from the Department of the Marine in 1995 and the then minister, Mr Sean Barrett, allocated a £3 million grant for the construction of the breakwaters.
The approved scheme also makes provision for 290 new car spaces, landscaping improvements, underground services and widening an existing slipway in the inner Coal Harbour.
At the oral planning hearing last October Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company said the marina would be a public amenity and not restricted to members of sailing clubs.
Mr Eamon Gilligan, on behalf of the company, said an environmental impact statement had shown it would have "an overwhelming positive impact in terms of the use of the harbour and the recreational and sporting benefits which will accrue".
He stressed that no public project in the State had been subjected to such an extensive consultation process. The main elements reflected the majority view of those bodies and persons consulted.
The facility has been a specific objective of the Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council development plan, and it was considered an important factor in the development of the area as a "marine-related tourist base".
However, Mr Peter Pearson, who has objected to the building of the marina, said the harbour had a unique architectural heritage which had been ignored by the environmental impact assessment (EIS) for the scheme.
An Taisce criticised the Harbour Company's approach, claiming that "all available car-parking in the harbour area is there to service the marina, but this takes absolutely no account of other harbour-users".
An Taisce believed the marina's potential to attract the type of wealthy international yachtsmen and women envisaged would be seriously curtailed by the marina's allocation of only 50 berths out of 680 for tourists.