Business anger at Luas works

The introduction of the Luas line to Dublin's Harcourt Street will bring an increase in "rowdy elements from the suburbs" to the area, a Harcourt Street art gallery owner has said.

"The street has become very rowdy already; the Luas will make it worse. Kids will be falling out of nightclubs into the path of this thing. I see nothing but danger," Ms Noelle Campbell Sharp of the Origin Art Gallery said last night.

Ms Campbell Sharp is part of a group of Harcourt Street business people, including Mr Pat McGill, owner of the Harcourt Hotel, and Mr Michael Fitzgerald, of the International Study Centre, who are seeking compensation from the State for disruption and damage to their businesses caused by Luas works.

Local residents and business people launched a exhibition of photographs with which they intend to illustrate their claims at the Origin Gallery last night.

The exhibition will be the last held at the gallery before it closes for two to three months. Ms Campbell Sharp alleges that "negligence and dangerous practice" associated with the Luas works has forced her to stop trading.

"We all have a constitutional right to make a living and if the State's agencies interfere with that entitlement, even for the general good, they have an obligation to compensate," she said.

Ms Campbell Sharp claims that the public have stopped visiting the gallery in large numbers due to the disruption and traffic blockages caused by Luas. She requested €200,000 in compensation but has been refused.

"I used to have 40 people in here a day, now it's down to one or none, yet I can't even get information. Everybody is very angry about the gobbledygook and Luas-speak. The Luas PR and liaison department is a joke."

Mr Derek Philips of the Odeon bar said his midweek business has been eliminated by the works. "Customer access is very difficult and people have the perception that we're closed. Because of the constant dust, we have a huge cleaning bill. We've had to let staff go and we've had no co-operation from Luas."

Mr Frank Dempsey, chief executive of the Village Quarter business group, claimed he damaged his ankle on the uneven surfaces caused by the digging, and local residents said they had to call the gardaí one night when Luas workers refused to stop digging at 11 p.m. Other businesses said they had been flooded and had their power supply cut because of the construction work.