Charlie Chawke set to open funeral home beside Goat complex, saying people paying their respects can dine in after

This follows Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Co Council giving the funeral home the go-ahead despite opposition from Fanagans Funeral Directors.

In an interview on Tuesday, Mr Chawke said that he was “delighted” that the council has granted planning permission.

He said: “It is always great to get planning permission. It has come through now thank God.”

Mr Chawke said that a funeral home operating from the ground floor of the former Paddy Power unit at the The Goat retail complex “would be good for business at The Goat”.

He said: “I had this idea going back a while that a funeral home would be good for the business where people coming to a funeral can dine in The Goat after.”

Today's News in 90 Seconds - March 26th

Mr Chawke said that “there is plenty of room” for a funeral home at The Goat to serve the area.

Mr Chawke said that he was “disappointed” that Fanagans did lodge an objection against the planned funeral home at the junction of Lower Kilmacud Road and Taney Road, Goatstown, Dublin 14.

He said: “Why anyone should object against it I don’t know.”

Mr Chawke said that the Chawke Group would not directly operate the funeral home.

He said that he intends to lease the space out to a funeral operator.

Mr Chawke confirmed that he has had positive discussions with a funeral operator who has expressed an interest to run the funeral home.

Asked about a possible appeal by Fanagans to An Bord Pleanala, Mr Chawke said: “Hopefully they won’t and leave it is as it is and we can get cracking on it.”

The Council granted planning permission after concluding that the funeral home “would not detract from the amenities of the area and is consistent with the provisions of the current Development Plan”.

A planning report lodged with the application stated that Mr Chawke “believes that a good quality, well run funeral home will complement The Goat/Paddy Power Retail Complex and he believes that there is a need locally for such a use”.

However, in a strongly worded objection on behalf of Fanagans Funeral Directors, Manahan Planners contended that “this application is ill-conceived”.

The objection stated “there is no local need for an additional funeral home to cater to this suburb of the city”.

It added: “Moreover, a location such as proposed would add surges of traffic to the adjoining road network as this busy traffic light controlled junction."

Expanding as to why Fanagans do not accept that there is a local need for the planned funeral home, the objection stated that Fanagans “operate a funeral home in Dundrum a little more than 1km away from this site”.

Mr Tony Manahan stated that “this application proposes to cater to the same suburbs claiming there is a local need for a funeral home in this area”.

He said that the applicants have provided no evidence to support such a convention. He states: “Our client at Dundrum has no difficulty in meeting the needs for this area”.

Mr Manahan said that the central contention in the application that there is a need locally “is flawed and is not supported by empirical evidence”.

The grant of permission coincides with new accounts show that Chawke group owned pubs continue to perform strongly with new accounts for the firm which operates The Bank pub on Dublin’s College Green, College Inns Ltd recording post tax profits of €572,649 in the 12 months to the end of April last.

Fanagans have been contacted for comment.