The laying of a 900 sq m concrete slab by the Royal Irish Yacht Club at Dún Laoghaire was merely "a movement of the island of Ireland northwards", a judge heard yesterday.
Although described as a boat slip by the club, it was simply a land extension into the sea and not a building within the meaning of the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) Act, senior counsel David Hardiman said in the Circuit Civil Court.
He appeared with Robert Barren, for Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company, resisting an appeal by the yacht club and its trustees, Fergus McKinley, James Fitzpatrick and Richard Kirwan Caldebeck Pilkington, who seek the right to purchase the freehold of "the building".
The club failed last year in an application before county registrar Susan Ryan, who held the club had to fail because it was a business and there were no permanent buildings on the land on which the boat slip had been constructed.
She said business was defined in the Act as "any trade, profession or business . . . any activity for providing cultural, charitable, educational, social, sporting services . . ."
The sailing club had 720 full members. It held races, organised courses and ran social activities. It had a full bar and dining room and at the height of its season, employed 26 people.
The county registrar was told the concrete slipway was a "permanent building" because it was structural, supported, substantial and man-made on foreshore rock.
She heard evidence that Dublin's Spire was a structure but not a building because it was not supporting anything. RTÉ's mast in Dublin 4 was equally also a structure and not a building. A permanent fixed structure was a building when it could provide housing or was capable of providing shelter.
Judge Alison Lindsay will hear the appeal, led by senior counsel John Farrell and Hugh O'Keeffe, for the yacht club, over two days.
The club pays Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company €761.84 ground rent per year and has estimated it should be permitted to purchase the freehold for €33,000.