IT’S A CASE of “not in my back garden” – quite literally – for Dermot Desmond who is against RTÉ’s proposal to redevelop its campus at Montrose and is asking An Bord Pleanála for an oral hearing.
Desmond is well known for objecting to developments in the D4 area but this time he’s not just reprising his self-appointed role as guardian of the D4 status quo.
The garden of his home on Ailesbury Road is located northeast of RTÉ’s grounds, but also happens to abut the RTÉ campus.
The national broadcaster intends to demolish and rebuild the 1960s and 1970s broadcasting facilities on half of the 16-acre site, doing away with most of the original design by Scott Tallon Walker.
Desmond says the RTÉ parkland is enjoyed “by many thousands of people who pass and repass along the Stillorgan dual carriageway and who live within the immediate vicinity”.
In a 16-page appeal, Desmond says his Victorian house is a protected structure “and as an adjoining occupier I am entitled to be protected from insensitive and inappropriate development”.
One of the proposed buildings is 50 metres from his back garden and he says he is worried about noise, disruption and dust during construction – and that affected residents haven’t been consulted. He says it’s not just the RTÉ building but the entire grounds that are protected – not to mention his own house.
Desmond is one of eight appellants to the development. The others are An Taisce, Brian and Orla Murphy, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Eugene and Eva O’Reilly and others, Ailesbury Apartments Management Ltd, Brendan and Sharon Mullin, and Michael McKillen and M McKillen.
