The Fianna Fail MEP for Dublin, Mr Niall Andrews, has suggested that the European Commission might view the proposed Dublin Port Tunnel as it did the Mutton Island sewage treatment plant.
At a seminar he organised in Dublin on Saturday, Mr Andrews pledged to arrange a meeting with the EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, Ms Monika Wulf Mathies, so people affected could outline their fears.
After Mutton Island, the bureaucrats are now going to have to listen to the people", he said.
A succession of residents' association representatives spelled out their opposition to the preferred route for the tunnel, which would take it underneath more than 270 houses, mainly in Marino.
Residents rebuffed attempts by members of the project design team to reassure them. Only two members of the Drumcondra 2005 group voiced support for the £130 million scheme.
Mr Andrews appeared to break ranks with his party leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, who strongly supports the project, then he said people on Dublin's northside were more "entitled to their human rights than the birds in Booterstown Marsh".
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