A campaigning conservationists' group dedicated a "worse Ireland" award to AIB at last night's 1997 AIB Nationwide Better Ireland Awards.
The trophy - a model JCB mounted on a wooden plinth - was awarded to AIB by Lancefort in protest over plans by developers to build a hotel and office scheme on a site owned by AIB at College Green, Dublin. The "demolition award 1997-98" was granted for "hypocrisy and a worse Ireland". Four members of Lancefort brought it to RTE's Donnybrook studios about 30 minutes before the ceremony was broadcast. It was presented in the foyer minutes before the start of the ceremony to a member of the award's judges panel to be passed on to the chairman of AIB, Mr Lochlann Quinn.
Last week, Lancefort lost a High Court application to extend an injunction prohibiting the developers of the proposed scheme from conducting work on the site.
It is awaiting judgment on its legal action against the validity of An Bord Pleanala's permission for a hotel scheme on the site, at the junction of College Street and Westmoreland Street. This includes several historic buildings including the former Scottish Widows insurance office, a red sandstone edifice in Victorian Italianate style and the 1930s neoclassical Pearl Assurance building.
Mr Garret Kelly from Lancefort said the award was for AIB's role in the planned "destruction of listed buildings and the undermining of the listing system". He said the group was not critical of the "commendable" AIB Nationwide Better Ireland Awards.