Oireachtas committee wants superstores banned

The Government should ban superstores and incentives should be used to encourage people to shop in town centres, a report from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business has said.

The report has been submitted to consultants specifically appointed by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, to consider the issue of superstores.

Earlier this year, Mr Dempsey announced an interim policy directive limiting the size of supermarket developments to 3,000 sq m. However, the committee's report recommends a reduced limit of 2,500 sq m, which is how superstores are defined in Britain. Mr Dempsey introduced the interim directive following an earlier recommendation from the committee that a restriction be put on the size of retail developments.

According to the report: "Ireland must not repeat the mistakes of the UK and other countries by allowing the untrammelled development of large-scale retail developments in out-of-town or edge-of-town locations".

The report recommends that incentive schemes be introduced to encourage people to shop in urban locations. "In this regard, the Government should consider introducing a fee system for parking in out-of-town centres," it says.

It adds that "this fee should be levied against the operators of edge-of-town centres and be linked to their car parking capacity". The report's author, Senator Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael), said a charge of 20p per car entering out-of-town centres might be considered.

He said this would be an "equalisation" measure which would put superstores and other large out-of-town developments on a "level playing pitch with smaller town centre retailers". He added that such an initiative "would recognise the harmful impact of car-borne traffic on the road network".

The report alleges that many Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) submitted by developers as part of planning permissions for retail developments are "subjective and biased". It says many do not address the damage done by large out-of-town centres to local businesses, communities and the environment.

It suggests that, in future, local authorities should be allowed to select their own EIS consultants and charge the cost of producing their subsequent reports to the applicant.

Mr Coghlan said no one on the committee had ever seen an EIS which pointed out the potential damage done by large out-of-town centres to local traders.