LIFFEY LINE, the Dublin river taxi service, is taking the Dublin Docklands Development Authority to court over lack of access at Custom House Quay.
Since 1994, Liffey Line has carried 100,000 passengers to and from the Point Theatre and Tara Street. However, the taxi's skipper, Capt Michael Reynolds, says his BES funded company faces a bleak future if the dispute is not resolved.
The row involves access to the new Jury's Inn at Custom House Quay. Currently, the vessel is moored at a berth alongside the docklands authority offices opposite the hotel, also on the north bank. It has sought access to a berth further downstream, known as berth 15, which is within Dublin Port jurisdiction.
Dublin Port has no problem with this. However, the one metre wide access passage to the Commons Street public ferry steps, which the port owns and which is part of berth 15, lies on the extreme eastern perimeter of a carpark developed by the authority. This has been blocked off with a fence since last September.
The Commons Street steps are the only passenger embarkation facility on the 27 acre docklands site, according to Capt Reynolds.
Nine years ago when construction of the International Financial Services Centre was under way, the authority - then known as the Customs House Docks Development Authority - had invited Capt Reynolds to use the site. It even offered to install a floating jetty as a landing stage.
A spokesman for the authority, Mr Gerry Kelly, said there was no right of access in the title deeds to land it purchased from B&I Ferries and Dublin Port in 1989. Capt Reynolds had been given permission to use the berth below its premises, Mr Kelly said. The authority would not comment further due to the court action he added.
The Dublin Docklands Development Authority, which has considerable powers under the Urban Renewal Act, can regulate its own planning.
