The organisation that owns a 19th-century Presbyterian church in Dublin says it will demolish it, despite a last-minute plea by the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands to save the building.
Ms Sile de Valera said yesterday that the church at Tritonville Road, Sandymount, which is owned by the Presbyterian Residential Trust, was of architectural significance and should be adapted for future use.
TDs and An Taisce, the heritage group, are also calling on the trust to drop its demolition plans and residents have held a vigil outside the building for the past week.
But in a statement issued last night the trust said it had noted Ms de Valera's comments, but its plans were unchanged.
The trust has been granted planning permission by Dublin Corporation to demolish the building to make way for 17 sheltered units for the elderly and eight two-bedroom private apartments.
The trust already operates sheltered housing behind the church, which it says has not been used for services for 20 years and is not a listed building.
In its statement, the trust said it had spent seven years in detailed consideration of many proposals, including adapting the disused church building.
"However, in consultation with its professional advisers any adaptation proposals were rejected since to develop accommodation of the type necessary would have required so many modifications to the external facade of the building its character would have been completely lost anyway," it said.
It also said that the building's retention was "unviable" under the trust's resources.
An independent report commissioned by a residents' heritage trust group and published this month showed the church to be structurally sound, with no evidence of either wet or dry rot.
The trust had last month said there was dry rot fungus in the building and a crack in the structure, which left it with no option but to demolish it.
Ms de Valera had earlier said that professional advice available to her showed that the church could be restored for future use.
"This would be the best solution for the architectural heritage," she said.
Under planning laws, the Minister has an advisory role in relation to the protection of the architectural heritage.
Given that planning permission had been validly obtained by the trust, Ms de Valera said, it was for the owners to decide on the future of the building.