The High Court has reserved judgment on a challenge to planning conditions aimed at ensuring public access to the Old Head of Kinsale, now the site of an £8 million golf course.
The two-day hearing concluded yesterday before Mr Justice McCracken, who reserved his decision.
In submissions yesterday, Mr Dermot Flanagan, for An Bord Pleanala, and Mr Conleth Bradley, for Cork County Council, argued the four conditions were made within the jurisdiction and powers of the board.
Mr Flanagan said there had always been some form of public access to the area, and the planning board was entitled to attach such conditions to a permission.
Replying, Mr Willis Walshe, for Ashbourne, developer of the golf course, said the conditions appeared to require that the public should have access to the entire Old Head.
In a situation where a golf course was situated on the site, this was dangerous and unreasonable.
He added that the golf course was closed during the winter because it was so exposed, and it was unreasonable to expect the company to provide public access year-round.
The proceedings were taken by Ashbourne Holdings Ltd, South Mall, Cork, developer of the golf course, which was opened in 1997.
The company objects to conditions attached to a retention permission which was granted by An Bord Pleanala on October 31st, 1997, for a clubhouse, car-park, access road, machinery shed and modification of an entrance gate.
The conditions require the provision of public access at all times during daylight hours to the lighthouse and surrounding areas and also if access to cliff paths and cliff edges for interest groups.
They also stipulate that any charge for access to lands south of the new gateway - which lands were said yesterday to mean the Old Head area itself - should not exceed the reasonable cost of insurance and administration.
A fourth condition states that a survey should be carried out of the ruins of De Courcey Castle, which is located on the Old Head.
Ashbourne objects to all four conditions.
It says it is prepared to provide limited public access but only by its own choice and without obligation. It also says it does not own De Courcey Castle.