A Dublin laneway has been closed to the public due to antisocial behaviour and drug use after city councillors voted last night to shut Harbour Court.
Councillors say the lane - which runs between Abbey Street, Marlborough Street and Eden Quay - is "not safe".
Sinn Féin councillor Janice Boylan said that the decision was taken at a Dublin City Council meeting last night and was "not taken lightly".
She said that she hopes it will be reopened with plans to improve the conditions and safety.
Cllr Boylan said she knows some people will miss having access to the laneway while it is closed to the public, but said personally it did not feel safe at night walking through it.
She said "extreme" antisocial behaviour is taking place there, including intravenous drug use.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, she said that over Christmas there was a strong garda presence on the streets in the area, which helps in stopping such behaviour, but added that gangs of people congregate in the laneway.
"Some of them are drinking, some of them are using intravenous drugs and it's just the amount of rubbish as well in the laneway," Cllr Boylan said.
"It's just really a horrible, horrible place to even walk through. I wouldn't walk through it. I'd rather go around the long way."
She said she supported the closure of the lane as the issues have been going on for a long time.
In a statement, Dublin City Council said that over the last ten years, a number of businesses in the area requested that the public right of way to the laneway be "extinguished".
The council said that the laneway was regularly used for intravenous drug use and was a location for illegal dumping, leading to complaints from the public and businesses.
In a public consultation in the Autumn, many local business owners had expressed their concerns with what was happening in the area from drug use to anti-social behaviour.
Dublin City Council said that representation or objections to the proposed closure of the laneway were invited last August. It said that there were four objections and 26 letters of support for the proposal.
'Incredibly disappointing'
Green Party Councillor for Dublin North Inner City Janet Horner described the decision to close the lane as "incredibly disappointing" and a "big defeat" for the people of Dublin.
She said no one was denying that there are significant antisocial behaviour issues there, but shutting the space will not solve the problems, she said.
Cllr Horner said the decision shows a massive lack of vision and ambition in addressing the problems in the area.
"This is very regressive to my mind," she said.
Cllr Horner added that there has been a strategy to re-imagine Dublin One for a number of years but no actions to improve Harbour Court have been taken.
"For the past number of years, we've enacted none of those recommendations," she said.
"We've taken no actions on the back of that strategy to actually improve Harbour Court. So the first thing we are moving to do is shut it down without ever trying to improve the area.
"And on the back of all the conversations we've had in the past six weeks or so since the riots about Dublin One and the issues and the problems of it. I find it so demoralising that the first meaningful action we are taking on the back of that is shutting down in public space."
Cllr Horner said proposals from the re-imagining strategy should be implemented.
These include cleaning the streets and making them a more pedestrian friendly environment and incentivising business owners to clean up their properties.
Read more: Proposed Dublin laneway closure a 'real shame' - councillor
