Sir, – I read your Editorial on the Dún Laoghaire harbour plan with interest (July 4th), but I would be far more querulous as to its ideas and figures. It is clear the residential element is an essential component of the development if it is to be commercially viable. It will also, in volume/mass terms, be extremely large. The pavilion development nearby has about 100 residential units in two blocks of considerable mass. The St Michael’s wharf proposal is for 300 units. Imagine the mass involved, especially since the residential units are shown squeezed on St Michael’s wharf mostly to the west of the present car ferry marshalling lanes.
The low-rise blocks shown on the display boards at the exhibition would not be able to provide the numbers required. The Diaspora centre on Carlisle Pier will invite comparison with the Guggenheim in Bilbao and Sydney Opera House, the promotional film claims. Buildings like these cost lots of money, and it would be interesting to see how the construction costs and cost benefit analysis for the centre are calculated. My suspicion is that they weren’t. Up to a million visitors a year are expected. Interesting; the most visited attraction in the country – Dublin Zoo – attracted 960,000 people in 2010, the Guinness Storehouse 930,000, according to Fáilte Ireland. How was the plan’s one million figure arrived at? It seems to have little hope of being achieved.
The cruise liner pier is seeking to attract 100,000 visitors. Given that 202 liners carrying 204,000 people – not all of whom disembarked – visited Irish ports in 2010, this seems a wildly ambitious target and much of what might be achieved would be at the expense of Dublin Port. What draft is currently available in Dún Laoghaire port? Would massive dredging be required to enable even modest size cruise ships to berth? I am totally in favour of a plan for the realistic and sensible development of the harbour area, but this is not it. – Yours, etc,