A disparate group of apartment-dwellers, gym-goers and swimmers will protest outside Leinster House today over plans to demolish 70 apartments and a popular Dublin city centre pool and gym to accommodate a new metro station at Tara Street.

The National Transport Authority (NTA) plans to demolish the Markievicz Leisure Centre, on Townsend Street, which includes a gym and the only 25-metre public pool in the capital, in order to facilitate construction of the proposed Metrolink subway stop at Tara Street.

The NTA also plans to demolish eight duplexes owned by Dublin City Council (DCC) as well as 70 apartments, housing around 150 owners and tenants, in the College Gate apartment complex as part of the €3bn project.

Protest organiser John Dean said local residents are furious over plans to demolish much-needed homes in the worst housing crisis in modern history and deprive Dubliners of one of the few public pools and gyms in the city, which DCC spent more than €1m to refurbish two years ago.

Irish Independent