The chief executive of Dublin City Council has been criticised by an Oireachtas committee for failing to provide a response to An Bord Pleanála's rejection of plans for a plaza at College Green.
Owen Keegan was due to attend a meeting of the Joint Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport today, along with with Anne Graham, chief executive of the National Transport Authority.
However, committee chairperson Fergus O'Dowd announced that Mr Keegan said he was unable to attend.
Mr Keegan informed him that two officials could attend in his place, but would not be able to give a likely council response to the ruling and did not wish to make opening statements.
The Fine Gael TD told the committee that this was "disappointing" and "absolutely unacceptable".
He said he was writing to Mr Keegan to arrange another opportunity to attend and give a "full and substantive response".
The meeting on the College Green issue was cancelled this morning.
An Bord Pleanála rejected plans to develop a pedestrian plaza at College Green last week.
In its decision, it said that while there was merit in the proposals there was not enough information on the impact to traffic, particularly for buses.
The board said there was a failure by Dublin City Council to show that footpaths on either side of the quays had the capacity to take the increase numbers of pedestrians that would be re-directed onto the quays as a result of bus re-routing.
In a statement, Dublin City Council said Mr Keegan had not intended any discourtesy to the committee.
It stated that Mr Keegan had informed the committee that there was still seven weeks to consider a High Court challenge against the decision by way of judicial review.
Mr Keegan pointed out that the inspector's report runs to 218 pages.
This had to be reviewed fully to arrive at a properly considered opinion as to status of the project and the options available.
The letter stated that it was unlikely that the council would be in a position to respond until the judicial review period is over.
