The former Japanese Embassy, on Ailesbury Road, in Dublin 4, may be demolished if its owner, believed to be a Dublin builder, gets his way. He bought the house on three quarters of an acre last year for a record £2.95 million and almost immediately word went around that the house would be levelled. The two-storey house, which had lain empty for some years, is in poor condition and has little architectural merit.

Now, the Corpo will have to decide if it should be pulled down and replaced by a more typical Ailesbury Road two-storey over basement house set well back on the site.