Things in Ireland that merit the adjective “breath-taking”. The Cliffs of Moher on a wild Atlantic day. The light radiating from a snow-covered Mount Errigal. Caravaggio’s The Taking of Christ in the National Gallery. Newgrange at the winter solstice. And the gall of some developers.

I follow the planning hearings for the proposed MetroLink underground rail line in Dublin for the same reason that some people become obsessed with the Loch Ness monster or Bigfoot: the fascination of mythical creatures. There have been rumours of the existence of the metro for half my lifetime and occasionally those of us who live close to its proposed route have even spotted the equivalents of yeti footprints: engineers in hard hats with sophisticated-looking instruments taking mysterious measurements.

Evidence that the metro might be a real beast has come in recent weeks with the holding of oral hearings in which communities and businesses along its putative path get to have their say about how it may affect them. It was one of these hearings last week that provided a staggering insight into the mentality of development in Ireland.

The hearing concerned the proposed metro stop at a place called Northwood. If you’ve ever been to Ikea, it’s the area across the main road, just north of Ballymun and south of the M50, with a large shopping mall and a load of apartments.

One of the big shops there is Lidl. Lidl also owns a plot of undeveloped land at Northwood. Hence it had a lot to say at the metro planning hearings. On the morning of last........

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