RTÉ presenter Louise Duffy and her husband, former Kerry GAA star, Paul Galvin, have secured planning permission for an extension to their home in south Dublin, despite strong opposition from a group of local residents.
An Bord Pleanála rejected an appeal by a group of “concerned residents” in Ranelagh against last year’s decision by Dublin City Council to approve the application by the couple to build an extra storey on top of their bungalow home.
Ms Duffy and Mr Galvin want to create new first-floor accommodation comprising three bedrooms to cater for their growing family.
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The couple, who have lived in their current home since 2013, claimed the house functioned for them as a younger couple but it struggled to support the daily demands of their current situation as a family with two young children.
While they had looked for more suitable accommodation in the Ranelagh area, the couple said they had repeatedly returned to the prospect of making their existing home work as they had a love for its setting and the area.
However, a group of local residents claimed they would be significantly affected by the proposed development which they argued would result in the overlooking of the private gardens of adjacent properties with an associated loss of privacy.
They said the construction of an additional floor to the home of Ms Duffy and Mr Galvin would have “an ongoing negative impact resulting from a considerable reduction in daylight and sunlight for nearby residents.”
The group also claimed minor design revisions made by the couple were “wholly insufficient” to overcome their concerns and they rejected their plans for the property as “totally unacceptable.”
They expressed concern that the impact of the extension would be so severe as to depreciate the value of other properties in the area.
Local residents also claimed the extension constituted overdevelopment of the site and would be “a visually incongruous pop-up element in the streetscape.”
They stated the bungalows were designed as accessible, one-bedroom houses for “down-sizers, elderly couples and retired single people.”
The residents claimed the transformation of the property into a three-bed house to accommodate a growing family without sufficient garden space would put undue pressure on the existing communal area.
In its ruling, An Bord Pleanála upheld the council’s original decision and said it did not believe that the proposed extension would seriously injure the amenities of the area or adjacent properties subject to compliance with a number of planning conditions.
However, the board directed that the layout of the master bedroom should be reorganised to ensure a satisfactory standard of accommodation is provided as well as limiting the height of the rear eaves of the extension to four metres.
Ms Duffy, a former Today FM presenter who took over the midday slot on RTÉ Radio 1 at the start of 2022 following the stepping down of Ronan Collins, did not respond to a request for comment.
In their planning application, consultants for her and Mr Galvin, claimed the couple were “already woven into the fabric of the local community” in Ranelagh.
They said the pair had, “on a human level,” grown close to several elderly neighbours over the years and had been a source of contact, help and support for many residents during the Covid-19 pandemic.
One neighbour who supported their application to build an extension described them as “a delightful couple – pleasant, helpful and cheerful.”
The neighbour said getting planning approval for the extension “would benefit all of us”.
