This is not an iconic building - it's iconically crude, says Mr Carroll. I firmly believe that even the best architects in Europe would struggle to design a tower in this sensitive location' https://twitter.com/Nick468official/status/1199703549732622336

'It is as if the developers want to see not Limerick but a very small Los Angeles, or London's Canary Wharf'.

'It's an obsolete and unsustainable way of disfiguring a city centre in the 21st century', the architect added.

Peter Carroll asked the question so many people have been asking of the developers: Why so little housing in Project Opera?

Fielding the question, Gavin Lawlor @LimerickCouncil representative: 'We get a much better bang for our buck, by having an apart-hotel instead of housing'. There's more demand for this.

The apart-hotel would have its emphasis on 'apart', he insisted. And he said if this was replaced, it would give rise to only around 40 new apartments.

A grant from Limerick Regeneration Funding did not relate to housing, Dermot Flanagan has insisted.

Conservation architect Cait Ni Cheallachain is next up. In the interests of environmental sustainability she has not printed her speech. But she has plenty to say on the lack of housing in Project Opera.

She presented a copy of a @Limerick_Leader front page from 2011 where Denis Brosnan, the then chair of the regional jobs task force asked public for their views on the future of the Opera site.

But, she said, the views of the people have not been listened to. She pointed out that there are more than 2,000 people on the housing waiting list. @LimerickCouncil has betrayed its own mission statement of 'Putting People First' with this.

She pointed out original plans, exclusively revealed by the @Limerick_Leader in January 2018 which showed that original plans for Opera had 161 living spaces.

Labour TD @JanOSullivanTD, a former Housing Minister is likely to continue in the same vein. Incredibly, she has been the only public representative to address this oral hearing.

She said: 'While inclusion of 16 apartments is improvement on original plan, it's still in our view, wholly inadequate. Suxch a large development, led by a public authority on state-acquired land should contain a substantial and sustainable residential development.'

She pointed out many cities in Europe which have vibrant city residential populations. Jan, who was in government at the time said housing, particularly affordable homes would be a 'significant element' in the site.

'It's clear from correspondence from city manager to department officials that it was intended to have significant houses in it'. She referred to back to documents in 2011 which made it clear that substantial homes should be included in plan.

On apart-hotel, @janosullivantd contended it is not a residential development