Protest to 'save Stephen's Green Shopping Centre' to take place this weekend

A protest is scheduled to take place outside Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre in Dublin at 1 pm on Saturday, May 9, in response to the proposed redevelopment of the building.

Dublin City Council has granted planning permission for the eight-story expansion, which was submitted by the owners, DTDL Ltd. The plans involve a reconfiguration of the existing retail area, the addition of office space and cinema screens, and the addition of several new hospitality venues, including a bar or restaurant with an outdoor terrace.

This approval follows the rejection of an earlier redevelopment plan by An Coimisiún Pleanála (the planning commission) last summer. The Council received a total of 61 submissions, the majority of which opposed the application. Among the opposition was the Save Stephen's Green Campaign, which held a petition with over 20,000 signatures.

"The first time they tried to apply for planning permission to demolish the building in December 2023," reads a post from the Save Stephen's Green campaign. "In September 2025, they had planning refused because the façade was not sufficient design quality. So in December, they came back with a new application : Keep everything the same except for the façade. They got a prestigious Irish architect to design the new façade, but unfortunately this doesn't seem to have impacted the quality of the design at all."

As a condition of the planning permission, the developer has been ordered by the Council to contribute €4.2 million toward public infrastructure and a further €1.3 million to the LUAS cross-city scheme.

The redevelopments have been stalled for now following a third-party appeal lodged with An Coimisiún Pleanála by Oliver Donoghue.

Donoghue had previously urged the Council to deny planning permission for the redevelopment, stating, "we don’t want our history erased."

 

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