Developer Liam Carroll has been accused of trying to "wrongfoot" rival developer Sean Dunne and An Bord Pleanala in relation to the partially completed Anglo Irish headquarters building on Dublin's north docks.

In a letter to the board, seen by the Sunday Tribune, Dunne's company says that Carroll's North Quay Investments (NQI) "have quietly and rapidly moved an application for planning permission in a manner clearly calculated to wrongfoot us and the board".

"In making the application in the manner they have, [NQI] has sought to foreclose objection to the grant of permission for what is – by any reckoning – part of the proposed development, at a time when attention was focused on this appeal," Dunne's company said.

Dunne also said that "difficulties" identified by the board in the application can only be addressed "legally" by refusing permission.

NQI "is not entitled to procure retention permission on the strength of a separate permission, which it is not obliged to implement, and may never be implemented", Dunne's North Wall Property Development wrote.

Dunne also said that Carroll is relying on 'project splitting' in relation to the Anglo building in order to avoid the necessity to comply with environmental impact legislation.

Dunne, who wants the structure demolished, told the board that if "it fails to insist that the requirements of the Environmental Impact Assessment directive are met, then the board's decision will be invalid and liable to be set aside in judicial reviewing proceedings."

"The simple fact of the matter is that the development (including the partially-built structure)… cannot be regarded as a standalone project which can be assessed in isolation. Rather the subject development constitutes part of a larger project, and can only be assessed in the context of that project," the letter states.

Dunne said that an environmental impact statement would allow "critical issues" such as the need for the properly coordinated development of the area to be addressed and the imposing of appropriate planning conditions.

"The attempt by (Carroll) to put together a series of piecemeal planning permissions is the antitheses of the coordinated approach to planning mandated by the EIA Directive," the letter, dated 7 December, states.

Carroll returns resident deposits

Liam Carroll has returned deposits to residential tenants who had complained that they had not been reimbursed after moving out of some of his apartment schemes, writes Neil Callanan.

Housing association Threshold had received a number of emails from tenants of Carroll but they have been reimbursed in recent weeks.

"We did get complaints but all of the deposits have been paid," said Threshold director Bob Jordan.

Jordan stressed that it would have been a management company dealing with the issue of the deposits rather than Carroll himself.