Dún Laoghaire Harbour Board has been accused by a Maritime Institute president of "making a farce" of its promised consultation on developing Carlisle Pier.
Mr Des Branigan, director of Marine Research Teo and president emeritus of the Maritime Institute of Ireland, made his comments yesterday after the harbour board announced its favoured plan for the old mailboat pier.
The winning scheme by Urban Capital - comprising Sisk Contractors, Thomas Read group, Urban Capital Group and architects heneghan.peng - involves a 127-bedroom hotel, 229 apartments, retail and leisure facilities, a "national" marine life centre and a floating stage.
A Behaviour & Attitudes Ltd survey of 600 people who visited the four shortlisted designs for the pier found that a majority of 47 per cent favoured the design submitted by Mailboat Pier Company/Daniel Libeskind Architects.
The decision has been condemned by the Save Our Seafront group as setting aside the "democratic choice".
Mr Branigan of Marine Research Teo said that there had been no democracy involved in the shortlist selection for the competition, as other bidders had not even been granted an interview.
Mr Branigan said the selected design comprised "75 per cent apartments and a hotel", which would effectively deny the public access to the pier and pass it over to property interests. This was in conflict with the county council's 1998 proposals for the Carlisle pier, he said. His group would appeal the decision to An Bord Pleanála if necessary, he said.
The harbour board and its panel of experts yesterday enlarged on its reasons for choosing heneghan.peng. However, a spokesman said it was not possible "in the grey zone following the decision" to explicitly outline the reasons for fear of legal action from some of the runners-up.
A spokeswoman for the expert advisory panel, Ms Grainne Shaffrey of Shaffrey Associates, said the winning entry had "wonderful public access".