Anyone who’s spent hours queuing at the Motor Tax Office on Chancery Street, Dublin 7 or trying to find parking nearby will probably have little love for the place.

However, a proposal by Linders of Smithfield to demolish the dated six-storey River House building near the Four Courts and replace it with an 11-storey building has An Taisce talking in terms of it “undermining the dominance” of the James Gandon designed Four courts – “an icon of Dublin” – and in its appeal to An Bord Pleanála it quotes the UK architectural review as describing it as “Venetian in its uncluttered confrontation to the river”.

The 11-storey proposal is part of the overall development of the Markets Area in the north inner city, and while An Taisce praises the sophisticated design of the building and says it’s not against regeneration in the area, it says the Four Courts should continue to keep its original uncluttered setting, unlike Gandon’s other major public building on the Liffey, the Custom House whose dominance has been “eroded over time” by structures like the Loop Line Bridge, Liberty Hall and George’s Quay.