THE Labour TD, Mr Joe Costello, has condemned Dublin Corporation's decision to sanction the demolition of the rere of a listed Georgian building at Dublin's Parnell Square. The work at 16 Parnell Square is likely to be carried out this weekend.
The decision was made after a wall was made unsafe during building work on an adjoining site by the same developer.
A spokesman for Dublin Corporation said he was disappointed that the local authority had had to sanction the action.
Until recently the Garden Bistro restaurant, run by Ms Anne Walsh, occupied the building's ground floor. A court injunction by the tenant halted the removal of the building's roof in October, which the corporation had approved.
After reassessing the situation, the corporation spent £25,000 on securing and waterproofing the building. It is now trying to recoup the cost of this work from the owners, Alstead Securities, headed by Mr John Byrne.
Development work by Mr Byrne of a site close to no 16 has inadvertently made a back wall unsafe.
But Mr Costello said he was outraged at the latest news. "It is intolerable that the private owner of a listed building can carry out work in such a way which renders it so unsafe and results in demolition work being carried out on the building," he said.
According to the corporation, Mr Byrne's architects, Brian O'Halloran & Associates, informed the authority this week that the wall was too dangerous to be secured by shoring work.
A letter from consulting engineers O'Connor Sutton Cronin confirmed this.
Dublin Corporation came to the same conclusion after an inspection by its structural engineer and a consulting engineer with specialist expertise in building retention systems.
Both agreed that the demolition of the back of the premises was "unavoidable in the interests of public safety," according to a statement.
A spokesman for the corporation's planning department said the demolition notice, issued yesterday, specified that the house's front section must be secured.
The corporation's statement added that it was a matter of regret "that it was put in a position where it had no alternative but to agree to a further demolition of part of this List 2 building without planning permission having been granted for these works".
But it expresses the hope that with the owners' co operation, internal features of the building can be protected while its future is being resolved.
A spokesman for Alstead Securities was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Mr Costello said that it was imperative that the recommendations of the Interdepartmental Report on the Preservation of the Country's Architectural Heritage 1996 were implemented immediately.