Go-ahead for fourth crematorium after public consultation
A CONTROVERSIAL crematorium has been given the go-ahead by a local authority.
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council unveiled plans for the crematorium in Dublin last year. The local authority plans to locate the facility adjacent to the Shanganagh Cemetery in Shankill.
Plans to build a crematorium in the past in Kilternan were met with opposition by locals, and rejected by An Bord Pleanála.
Last year councillors agreed that the plans should go out for consultation and comment from the public.
On foot of this consultation process, a local residents’ association requested that An Bord Pleanála determine whether or not the crematorium should be subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment.
Councillors gave the goahead for the crematorium unanimously at the monthly council meeting this week.
The council earmarked €3.5m for the facility and it will be situated on a green field site which has been earmarked for such a development since 1989.
The proposed facility will include two halls, which will be used for conducting memorial ceremonies. The first hall will have capacity for approximately 80 people, while the second will have capacity for 60 people.
Also involved in the plans are a crematorium building, a wall for interring funeral urns, new burial plots, a meadow, a woodland copse and walk, a pedestrian route, car park for up to 30 vehicles, and an administration building with public toilet and coffee shop.
Ireland lags well behind its European counterparts in terms of the numbers of crematoria per head of population. Currently it is estimated that 40pc of all funerals are held in a crematorium, and there are only four crematoria operating in the Republic.
In Dublin, there are crematoriums at Glasnevin, Newlands Cross and Mount Jerome.