Noise researchers may attend council meeting on Dublin Port

Researchers found noise guidelines being breached, causing serious problems for residents of Coastguard Station

Cllr Dermot Lacey, when he was lord mayor,  casting a spear in Dublin Port to outline the boundries of the city. He has tabled a motion to invite the authors of a report on noise  levels in Dublin Port to a city council committee meeting. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons
Cllr Dermot Lacey, when he was lord mayor, casting a spear in Dublin Port to outline the boundries of the city. He has tabled a motion to invite the authors of a report on noise levels in Dublin Port to a city council committee meeting. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons

Dublin city councillors are to press today for the authors of a recent study of noise levels in Dublin Port and the "plight faced by residents" of Pigeon House Road to address the council's South East Area Committee.

Cllr Dermot Lacey, the council's Labour leader, has tabled a motion to invite the authors – Enda Murphy and Eoin King, whose study was published in the journal Environment International – to a meeting of the committee.

The two researchers found that World Health Organisation noise guidelines were being breached, causing sleep disturbance and other problems for residents of Coastguard Station, and the council had done nothing about it.

"It is simply not acceptable that a State company, Dublin Port, should impose such low standards on the neighbouring community and nor is it acceptable that Dublin City Council should be so complacent in their response," Cllr Lacey said.

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"I am asking the local area committee chairperson Cllr Gerry Ashe to invite the authors of the report and local residents to meet with councillors to see how we can make progress on this matter," he said yesterday.

Paul Murphy MEP (Socialist) said the findings of the study were “a vindication of the campaign of the residents of Pigeon House Road who have suffered this noise pollution” – emanating from the nearby Marine Terminals Ltd container port.

Frank McDonald

Frank McDonald

Frank McDonald, a contributor to The Irish Times, is the newspaper's former environment editor