TRANSPORT minister Noel Dempsey is doing his bit for the struggling building industry by personally creating a number of construction jobs in his home constituency.

The Meath West TD is preparing to demolish his home in Newtown, Trim and replace it with a new structure.

A planning application filed with Meath County Council, through agents RKD Architects, in the name of Noel and Bernadette Dempsey, has recently been given the green light by officials.

Filed in November last year, Dempsey's plans were given the go-ahead at the end of January.

He will demolish everything at his Trim home, with the exception of his downstairs office, and in its place build a new country residence.

According to a description, the project will consist of "a split-level residential dwel­ling retaining the existing home office at the lower level of a total gross floor area of 282sq m with external site works, landscaping, reusing existing connection to public foul sewer and services and new connection to the public surface-water drain on a site of 0.2328 hectares currently occupied by an existing house and home office which is to be demolished". As is normal in the majority of such planning applications, the minister will be subject to a number of planning conditions as part of his overall permission.

A total of 11 such conditions were imposed, mostly pertaining to the finished structure keeping in line with the submitted plans and drawings.

Visual amenity conditions included in the permission state that the builders will use the specified tile colours, that serviced lines and cables remain underground and that existing site boundaries are maintained.

Other conditions for the development relate to the normal financial contributions made by developers or applicants in relation to services provided by the local authority.