‘People did not ask for a hotel on the pier’ – councillors divided over ‘privatisation’ plans for Dún Laoghaire harbour
Councillors have expressed their concerns that a proposed plan to develop Dún Laoghaire’s harbour will privatise the waterfront.
The harbour master plan was introduced at a Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council (DLR) meeting this week – it will see over 30 big and small developments along the harbour including plans for more retail and tourism.
“This is a very ambitious plan and I am fully supportive – but the last council passed a motion supported by all of us that the harbour will be maintained in public ownership – that it would be the heart of what we do with it,” said Labour councillor Peter O’Brien.
In 2018, DLR councillors voted to transfer ownership of the harbour from a private company to its own control. The final master plan released this week includes an urban quarter planned for St Michael’s pier that will see the use of its ferry terminal for a hotel.
“The privatisation of St Michael’s Pier is a disgrace – we are looking at putting a hotel, conference and spa centre here – we know what they look like, they are private.” said People Before Profit (PBP) councillor Melisa Halpin.
“If you are going to tell me this is a public hotel run by DLR council, I don’t believe that. I do believe that this is an opportunity to privatise the waterfront which people did not ask for.”
Councillors at the meeting were divided – with some calling it “ambitious and futuristic”.
Fine Gael councillor Lorraine Hall said that the master plan was a “considerate effort” after it took into account over 600 submissions from the public over the last year.
“Our economy is good – there’s a real opportunity now to deliver on some of these projects – I like the comprehensive approach and public consultation we ran taking ideas from the public,” she said.
“We really do need hotels in our county – wherever they are – be they land side or sea side as proposed in this plan, one thing we’re very short of is hotels.”
Councillors asked for a breakdown on how much of the new plan will be privately funded.
“We have 32 odd projects – it’s difficult to answer how much is public and private until we look at them all individually and look at roots of delivery but that is the plan for the next year or so,” said Tim Ryan, DLR’s Harbour Operations Manager.
“The public cannot access St Michael’s pier now – this would help bring more access to that area and let them walk to the water’s edge. The hotel will not be on the existing pier but will be pushed out into a new area.
PBP councillor Dave O’ Keeffe said more needed to be done to maintain the harbour’s infrastructure before the developments could move forward.
“The harbour is the jewel in the crown for us, we need to improve it for future generations. In our recent budget, we’ve reduced the amount of money for maintaining its crumbling infrastructure,” he said.
"We’ve not done enough to fix even the more recent storm damage – this is like an effort to sell off the family jewels.”