An Bord Pleanála is to be called before a Dáil committee to account for its handling of decisions on infrastructure projects, including the Monkstown ring road, to which there is growing local opposition.
The Dáil Committee on Environment and Local Government will question the board over the overriding of a number of inspector's reports on infrastructure projects, including the controversial road.
The €15 million road, connecting the Stillorgan Park/Carysfort Avenue junction with Deansgrange Road via Newtown Park, will require the demolition of Yankee Terrace, a row of 11 late 19th-century cottages, and five properties on Newtownpark Avenue and Annaville Terrace. It was approved in June this year after an oral hearing despite a strong recommendation from senior inspector Phillip Jones to reject it.
In his report, the inspector said he could not find any "convincing or credible evidence" to justify the construction of the road.
"The benefits of the scheme, in so far as they have been quantified and put forward in the submitted documentation, are so minimal and insignificant as to be far outweighed by the environmental costs of the scheme, both to the community in general and to those persons whose properties are sought to be acquired," he said.
Deputy Éamon Gilmore, Labour spokesman on the Environment and Local Government and a member of the committee, said it was hard to understand how the board could have gone against Mr Jones's recommendation. "The recommendation was so conclusive it beggars belief that the board granted approval," he said. It was made following an oral hearing process. If you establish a process you have to accept the outcome. Not accepting the outcome is like Mayo winning the match but awarding the cup to the opposition because they always get it."
He said he would ask the board to account for their handling of this and other infrastructure decisions.
Meanwhile, local residents are continuing their fight against the road. They will hold a protest outside the offices of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council during the next council meeting, on September 11th, and will attempt to persuade councillors to vote the road out of the county development plan. Barry Troy, for the Rowanbryn-Springhill Residents' Association, said the board's decision was not based on technical considerations.
