Development plan: Protests against the proposed development of a €100 million office complex - parts of which will be up to six storeys - reached a new level yesterday when a small aircraft circled over Ballsbridge with a long tail-streamer bearing the message "Save RDS - no office complex".
The Irish Aviation Authority, issued a directive on July 11th, which includes the RDS premises as an "area of sensitivity", the RDS chief executive Mr Shane Cleary said yesterday.
"We have an arrangement with the Irish Aviation Authority that this is a sensitive area, not an exclusion zone, over the five days of the Horse Show."
Mr Cleary said that the first he had heard of a group called Friends of the RDS, which is opposed to the development, was in an article in last Thursday's Irish Times, which said the group described itself as "an amalgam of residents' associations and concerned citizens.
"We'd never heard of them... We don't know who these people are, or who they represent. I would say that they're totally misguided."
Around 25 official objections have been lodged against the proposed RDS development, including a 10-page submission from the Leeson Street residents' association.
Mr Cleary said he was "confidently hopeful" that the planning application would be successful. The first phase of the 10-year development would be self-funded by the RDS, he said.
"The RDS is sitting on an extremely valuable 42 acres and we are bound by our charter to generate as much income as possible. We are under increasing competition from other venues and, if the national conference centre goes ahead, the competition will be even greater.
"It takes €1 million before we even open the doors through rates, insurance and other overheads. We need to have some revenue. That's what the offices are for. They have been very carefully positioned by our architects to have the least effect on the residents.
"We respect people's right to object. We are in a planning process, but at the same time, the society is a very, very responsible resident here. If all the land were to pass out of our hands, they may find that other people might not be so responsible. But it's increasingly expensive to stay here. There's a radical need to improve our facilities and we cannot do that without additional revenue."
He said the planning application had been "unanimously approved" by the RDS council, which he described as "the elected representatives of the members".
There have been dissenting voices within the 6,000-strong membership, however, and, in the last 15 months, there have been three high-profile resignations from the society's equestrian committee.
One of those was Lieut Col Ronnie MacMahon, former commanding officer of the Army Equitation School. Lieut Col Gerry Mullins was the first to leave the equestrian committee in May of last year.
Lieut Col MacMahon has made no secret of the fact that he is concerned about the proposed development, saying the RDS is becoming commercially driven at the expense of the Horse Show.
He and others feel that the RDS will gradually down-scale the traditional August feature, eventually getting rid of everything except the international show-jumping classes.
However, Mr Cleary says the development will benefit both the Horse Show and all other RDS activities.
"Personally I believe this is the way the RDS has to go. I don't see there's any other way. We are currently providing hundreds of thousands per annum for foundation activities. This complex has the ability to provide millions per annum."