The Dublin Port Company's opposition to plans for housing on the Poolbeg peninsula, on the basis that at least some of the land may be required for essential port development, raises the fundamental issue of whether this area was ever really suitable for residential-led regeneration.
It is, after all, the location of major industrial installations, including the ESB’s Poolbeg power station, the municipal sewage treatment plant and the controversial waste incinerator, currently under construction. Would anyone want such potentially noxious facilities as neighbours?
There is already serious conflict between port operations and residents on Pigeon House Road, while proposals some years ago for an alternative purpose-built container port at Bremore in north Co Dublin came to nought. Dublin Port Company would have nothing to do with the plan as it had no intention of moving from its current location.
Now, the company wants 18 hectares (43 acres) of land in its ownership on the Poolbeg peninsula excluded from the area covered by the city council’s masterplan, so that it can be developed in future as a an even larger container terminal.
Given that it would be located very close to the redundant Irish Glass Bottle site, which changed hands during the boom for more than €400 million, there must be a question mark over this site’s viability for large-scale residential development due to the inherent conflicts involved.