The €350 million Lansdowne Road stadium project in Dublin has been approved by An Bord Pleanála, despite the planning inspector who chaired last year's public hearing recommending that permission be refused.
Nine members of the board gave their unanimous approval for the new stadium, attaching only comparatively minor conditions to their permission.
The board members rejected the report of their own inspector, Brendan Wyse, who chaired An Bord Pleanála's oral hearing on the project.
According to the board, Mr Wyse recommended against giving permission on the basis that there were better alternatives to the Lansdowne Road site, and that the proposed stadium would have an overly negative impact on local residents. In its written approval, the board members said their decision was based on the long history of the site as a stadium, its location near the city centre close to public transport, and the inclusion of the stadium in the Government's National Development Plan.
Informed sources have also said that the withdrawal of objections by two residents had a significant impact on the board's decision to give full approval for the stadium, which is receiving €191 million from the Government. The withdrawals came after the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) bought their houses close to the stadium for what is believed to be in the region of €6 million each in recent weeks.
The board's decision was welcomed by the Lansdowne Road Stadium Development Company (LRSDC), the joint venture firm set up by the IRFU and the Football Association of Ireland to redevelop the stadium.The company hopes to have the project completed by the end of 2009.
However, last night residents opposed to the development said they would be considering whether to take further legal action in the coming days. "This decision just smacks of Government influence and I say shame on the Government and shame on Minister [ John] O'Donoghue," Sophia Wallace of the O'Connell Gardens Boundary Group said.
Even though the stadium now has full planning permission, its construction depends on the sale by Dublin City Council of a strip of land along the River Dodder which falls within the footprint of the development.
Local councillor Kevin Humphreys (Labour) said city councillors would not agree to the sale of the land unless residents who will be overshadowed by the stadium were individually compensated.