Dublin Bay Watch gives guarded welcome to port plan

Dublin Bay Watch, one of the groups which successfully campaigned against Dublin Port Company's plans to infill 52 acres of the bay, has welcomed new plans to expand the port on its existing land base.

However, the group has warned the plans to double the capacity of the port could have serious environmental impacts on EU protected habitats in the bay.

At an An Bord Pleanála hearing this morning, Dublin Bay Watch said the current plan was a welcome departure from 40 years of “ failed attempts” to infill parts of the bay.

The group's chairman Gerry Breen said it looked forward "to working with the port in improving its efficiency".

The new port plans involve deepening the navigation channel from the East Link Bridge to a distance of 10kms out into the bay which would remove delays caused by current tidal restrictions.

The plans also include widening the channel to allow ships to pass each other in a current “one way” stretch.

The port is also seeking permission to reconfigure some berths, lengthen almost half of them and remediate contaminated soils in the Alexandra Basin area, as well as developing facilities for visitors.

Mr Breen told the hearing the port company and communities around the bay had been” at loggerheads for too long” . He also welcomed proposals for a “community gain fund of €1.2 million”.

But he said the current application with the accompanying Environmental Impact Statement and additional information “must be interrogated carefully” by An Bord Pleanála in relation to planning, marine, environmental and national economic and competitive issues.

He said the Dublin Port Company was seeking permission to drive up to 2,376 piles over a period of four years and there were concerns as to the noise and vibrations on communities living near the port and the effects on wildlife in the bay.

“Every year for six years, a million cubic metres of spoil will be dredged from the navigation channel and dumped at the boundary of the Rockabill to Dalkey Special Area of Conservation,” he said.

“Dublin Bay Watch is deeply concerned at this very significant continuous dredging which would result in very large amounts of spoil being taken from adjacent to the SPA and dumped on the border of a SAC.”

Mr Breen said other issues Bord Pleanála would have to consider included the competitiveness of Dublin Port in relation to other ports and the future protection of EU designated areas in the bay.