Planning ruling tomorrow on Dunne development

Neil Callanan

Sean Dunne: planning to demolish Hume House in Ballsbridge Dublin 4 to build a nine-storey office block

Hume House in Ballsbridge

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Developer Seán Dunne will find out tomorrow if his plans for the redevelopment of Hume House at Ballsbridge in Dublin 4 have won the approval of An Bord Pleanála.

Dunne wants to demolish the existing office building on the site and replace it with another office block rising to nine storeys in places.

Billionaire businessman Dermot Desmond objected to the plan stating it was a "blatant effort to shoehorn the maximum amount of usable space on the site... There is no proper justification for the size and scale and extent of the development proposed".

Dublin City Council approved Dunne's plans but said the developer would have to pay more than €1m to the council before he is allowed go ahead with the demolition.

Dunne bought Hume House from Irish Life by swapping an office block he owned in the Dublin Docklands for the building. He later sued property advisers CBRE in relation to the deal. The case was settled.