Formula One racing driver Eddie Irvine is finding his Dalkey cottage a little too cramped, it seems. He has just sought planning permission to demolish his tiny house, Kilross Cottage, and build a four-storey mansion on the site above Sorrento Road instead.

Certainly, he will need the extra space to celebrate being one of the top drivers in the world. He is currently leading the F1 drivers championship by two points. However, he will have his work cut out, both with neighbours and planners, to build the house of his dreams in such a sensitive neighbourhood as Dalkey. Kilross Cottage is at the centre of an enclave of houses at Monte Alverno, and he plans to blast a new roadway through for the building works alone.