Far from wanting to build a high-rise, gated millionaires' enclave on the sites of the Jurys and Berkeley Court hotels in the Dublin 4 suburb, his vision extends to inclusive amenities. "My vision is for somewhere that at least half of the development is open to the public as a place people can meet and gather for social or sporting occasions as they do now in Jurys for rugby matches, or where they can shop, or have a meal or a drink."

Dunne was guest of honour at the annual dinner of the Society of Chartered Surveyors in the Burlington Hotel, where a record-breaking (mostly male) 1,400 members were delighted by his opinions on everything from stamp duty to stockbrokers . . .

whom he castigates as "hyenas feasting on rotting flesh" . . . and the problems of the M50.

But it was his vision for the most fiercely fought-after site in Dublin last year that everybody wanted to hear.

And Dunne himself had an eye very firmly on the VIP guests at the top table who included Dublin city manager John Fitzgerald and the chairman of An Bord Pleanala John O'Connor, when he revealed how he wanted to renegotiate the current zoning to allow for what he called a "city within a city" on the site.

Dunne believes there are "three visions" for the Jurys site.

The first is that of the shareholders of Jurys and the Berkeley Court, who included a covenant in his purchase agreement which precludes him from building a hotel on the site . . . an agreement he wants to be released from.

The second is that of the Dublin City Development Plan, which has zoned the entire area residential . . . a designation he wants to try to change.

And the third is his own . . .

the idea that this special site can be used to create a mixed and vibrant development under a masterplan concept with award-winning international architecture of which as much as half can be used by the public.

"It's about creating a city within a city and giving something back to Dublin, " he says.

Dunne is currently in negotiations with the Doyle group to see whether, if it is commercially viable, he could build a new hotel on the site . . . something he wants very much because, with the new Lansdowne Road stadium now a reality, he says this part of Dublin needs a social hub for massive sporting events.

The developer believes a gated, high-end, highly-priced millionaires' row of residential apartments would "certainly be successful" on this site . . . and as far as the allresidential zoning goes, this option poses no problems.

A survey carried out among people who are already on a waiting list to buy apartments in anything he builds on the site shows that 60% will buy a unit there as a second home . . . and 33% of prospective buyers own two or more other houses.

In other words, 93% of interested buyers are investors.

"The third vision is my vision, " Dunne says. "It is of a civic centre where I see as much as 50% of the site of 3.5 acres made available for public access by means of a proper mix of development.

"Retail, restaurants, cafes and bars would make up 20% of the site. Offices and other utilities would make up 30%, a hotel if possible would take up 10% and the remaining 40% would be residential.

"This would benefit Dublin and, we hope, would be desirable to the planners."

Witty and trenchant, Dunne also showed he has very definite views on a wide range of issues affecting the property market.

He calls the stockbroking economists who have regularly predicted a property crash "hyenas . . . or to quote the Oxford English Dictionary, 'animals with thick necks that feed off dead or rotting flesh'.

The hyenas are now silent and have stopped laughing."

The M50 traffic chaos needs "a silver bullet" solution, he says. For a start, he questions why we can't just raise the barriers on the Westlink and make it toll-free for a month, paying toll operators NTR whatever losses they incur . . . about 3.5m, he estimates. "That way we can actually understand what's gone wrong with the M50."

Secondly, he wants a tunnel constructed under Dublin Bay from the north docks to Loughlinstown . . . a distance of 6kms.

"That is achievable, " he says . . . there are 48 longer tunnels throughout Europe.

Thirdly, he says, an outer ring road from Arklow to Drogheda should be added to the Transport 21 plans so that Dublin has adequate infrastructure to cope with its growth.

Dunne also called for the reduction of the top rate of 9% stamp duty . . . a tax on land and on property by any other name, he says, "and now that it is taking in 2bn for the government this year, the greatest cash cow our goverment has ever produced".

Chartered surveyors' president Derry Scully also addressed the dinner, castigating government plans for new legal contracts for construction work which will shift the responsibility for cost overruns from the state coffers and onto the private firms and professionals who are carrying out the work.

"The government is seeking to implement an inapproporate and unfair transfer of risk to construction contractors and consultants by the complete rewriting of tried and tested contracts and conditions, " says Scully.

He says the SCS supports the aim of greater cost certainty and value for money.

"But we are dismayed by how these are being interpreted."