Developer’s bid to turn embassy into offices fails

Developer Derek Quinlan has lost his High Court challenge to a planning condition stipulating a protected property on Dublin’s Ailesbury Road bought by him for €8.5 million may only be used as an embassy. Dismissing the challenge on all grounds yesterday, Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne ruled the condition was necessary and relevant to the permitted development and proper planning of the area and was also reasonable. The condition was attached to a planning permission for a small extension and refurbishment works at the property but An Bord Pleanála said it also applied in the context of the entire property. Imposing the condition on the entire property was “not disproportionate”, the judge said. The property at 43 Ailesbury Road was the home of the German embassy from 1962 until the mid-1990s when the Mexican embassy took over residence. Part of it was used from time to time as offices by non-embassy users.

The Irish Times