A planning decision due shortly will decide the future of one of the south-east's most important historic buildings.
Silversprings House in Clonmel, the one-time home of the transport pioneer, Charles Bianconi, is to be converted into a 10-bedroom hotel if plans by a local developer are approved.
Concerns about the proposal have been raised by local residents, who say they are "particularly disgusted" by a plan to build 10 terraced houses in the building's back garden.
The developer, Mr Dan Casey, says he is working closely with Duchas, the heritage service, to protect the integrity of the stone house, which was built in 1750.
A planning application is with Clonmel Corporation and a decision is due by April 9th, unless further information is sought, which could delay the outcome.
The house is a listed building and is of enormous significance to the town. Built as a charter school, it became the residence of Charles Bianconi in the 1830s. It was in Clonmel that Bianconi, who twice served as mayor of the town, started Ireland's first public transport system.
Clonmel is twinned with the town of his birth, Costa Masnaga in northern Italy.
Two local residents, Ms Finola Foley and Ms Carmel Costigan, have written to the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, asking her to help "keep the property safe". They urged that the house, which was a private residence until recently, be developed as a heritage centre.
"The house . . . has withstood the ravages of time and has had literally no alterations since Bianconi's time. The old coach house and stables are still in the back garden of this property as is the small, formal Italianate front garden," they wrote.
"We feel this house has significance not only for the people of Clonmel but for the country as a whole . . . we are asking that you would make a case for the protection of this house and return it to the people of Clonmel and Ireland."
Mr Casey says he was prepared to sell the house back to the people of Clonmel in small shares if they wished to buy it. He had also approached Clonmel Corporation and invited it to take a 50 per cent stake in some "viable proposition" for the house, but the idea was rejected.
"The question here is how do you protect something unless you do something with it? The alternative is to do nothing and if nothing is done it will be a roofless heap of stones in a few years' time," he says.
He says the house had been on the market for two years before he bought it. He had employed a Dublin-based architect, Mr Aidan Powell, and "since day one" had been in contact with Duchas and was taking on board everything the heritage body had requested.
"We don't feel we have to defend ourselves any further than that," he says. "I would hate to think that my intervention would be detrimental to the house. That is certainly not the intention at all."
The Mayor of Clonmel, Mr Tom Ambrose of Fianna Fail, says the house is a "historic building and a feature of the town" and the challenge was to maintain it in a viable way without altering its character. The options of keeping it as a private residence or having a State agency take it over did not appear to be available.
"There does not seem to be any other option than to allow it to be developed in a way which keeps it alive but also protects its integrity," he says. In any event, the house was a listed building and the Corporation would be obliged to take the observations of Duchas into account.
However, Ms Mary Greene, a Fine Gael councillor from Waterford, said people in Clonmel take the Bianconi house for granted. She believed the building should be used for some purpose other than a hotel, such as a heritage centre or a forum for local arts.
