The failure of the Spencer Dock developers to appreciate the direct link between car commuting and parking availability "undermines the whole validity of their approach" to parking on the site, according to a transport expert.
Mr Christy O'Sullivan, manager of consultants SIAS Ireland and a former traffic engineer with Dublin Corporation, said it was clear that the provision of almost 7,000 parking spaces on the site would cause significant congestion in the area.
"From my knowledge and experience of the existing road network, it came as a surprise to learn from the developers that some severely congested junctions were shown to be operating freely even with the generated traffic from the development added."
Mr O'Sullivan, who has been involved in a major traffic study for the proposed bridge linking Macken Street to Guild Street, adjoining the Spencer Dock site, said that even with its addition the local road network would be operating near its capacity.
He also told An Bord Pleanala's inquiry that it seemed strange the developers had cited the example of the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow as a comparative example given that it was located next to a motorway.
"If the developers' consultants bothered to look a little further east to Edinburgh they would find there a type of facility that better fits the needs and aspirations of Dublin . . . a modern conference facility in the heart of the city with only very limited amounts of parking."
