Yacht groups fight plan to build berth for cruiser liners
A PROPOSAL to build an enormous berth that would allow massive cruise liners to dock in the south Dublin harbour town of Dún Laoghaire is the focus of a bitter dispute.
While business leaders are in favour of Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company’s (DLHC) plan, believing it would lead to an influx of tourists, the local yachting groups have come out against the €18m project.
One commodore of a local yacht club has resigned from the harbour board over the issue. Justin McKenna, commodore of the Royal St George Yacht Club, said: ‘You can’t sail when there’s a great big ship in the way.’
The plan, which would involve installing a 435m berth, will go to An Bord Pleanála for considera- tion within the next two weeks. DLHC says the aim is to regenerate the harbour and town following the loss of the HSS Stena car ferry between Dún Laoghaire and Holyhead.
Chief executive Gerry Dunne says the development ‘will impact on all of south Co. Dublin’.
‘At the moment, big liners can’t come into Dún Laoghaire Harbour as they are too long. We can only use tender boats, which is a very old-fashioned way of disembarking passengers.’
However, four yacht clubs in south Dublin have submitted a joint submission to the public consultation process.
Larry Power, commodore of National Yacht Club, said the berth would kill off sailing in the harbour. ‘Annalise Murphy [who placed fourth in Women’s Laser Radial class in the 2012 Olympics] and World Champion Finn Lynch learned to sail with us in the harbour. Are we going to stop future generations having the opportunity they had?’
In their submission, the four yacht clubs point out that the city of Venice is considering banning large cruise liners because they are doing untold damage to the fabric of the city.
‘We have only one chance to stop this,’ Mr Power said.