Fears over Govt plans to relax store size restrictions
Government plans to relax the ban on superstores in order to facilitate furniture giant Ikea in Dublin will have a detrimental effect on local Irish business, it was claimed today.
Fears have been expressed that a U-turn on planning policy will decimate local industry and suck the life out of provincial towns.
The current cap on retail developments is 6,000 square metres but Environment Minister Dick Roche has admitted he intends to make at least one exception – on the Ballymun regeneration site.
Sinn Féin TD Arthur Morgan warned that retail sale jobs in Ireland have traditionally been low-paid jobs with limited career prospects.
He said one superstore dominating the market did not constitute choice. “It is not about the regeneration of urban areas,” he claimed. “In fact it will dramatically increase the volume of traffic already choking our roads.
“What this is really about is a single multi-national business empire flexing its considerable muscle to force a Government U-turn on a policy that has served the Irish retail sector well for years.”
Mr Roche said such developments would only be made on a very focused and very limited basis and that any change to the law would be very “tightly-worded” to quell traders’ fears.
“There is a balance to be struck and it should be possible to review the guidelines to allow for the development of a very large store in an area like Ballymun,” he said.
“People will be concerned. In any kind of trade people like to restrain trade on others to protect their own interests but we are building, we will complete 80,000 housing units this year. There is a huge pent up demand.”
Mr Roche claimed the most common question asked on the Ikea website was when a store was opening in Ireland.
“There is a demand there and it’s one that will be sustained for some time,” he told RTE Radio. “This company is looking to build a store and it might as well be in the Republic.”
He said traffic volumes were a concern and would have to be carefully considered at the planning stages.
The minister acknowledged that the move would trigger interests from other international superstores but claimed this would not become the norm because of potential damage to town centres.
“But you can draw regulation sufficiently to create the balance of benefit to consumers to an area like Ballymun,” he added. “That’s what I’m looking for, if you can get the balance it’s a win-win situation.”
The opening of the Swedish low-cost furniture store could create up to 1,000 jobs.
Proposals to relax current legislation are expected to be brought before the cabinet in coming months.
