The Upper Shannon Rural Renewal Scheme covers counties Leitrim and Longford as well as 38 district electoral divisions in Co Cavan, 77 in Co Roscommon and 35 in Co Sligo. It provides lucrative tax incentives for industrial, commercial and residential development.
In effect, "every blade of grass" in these areas is designated for development incentives, as Mr Donal Mac An Bheatha, a senior planner with Longford County Council, told the Irish Planning Institute's annual conference last month in Westport, Co Mayo.
Apart from accelerated capital allowances for new commercial and industrial buildings and Section 23-type incentives for residential investors, the 1999 Finance Act extended reliefs to owner-occupiers for new or refurbished houses of up to 210 square metres.
Under the scheme, anyone buying or building a new house in the Upper Shannon designated area is entitled to write off 5 per cent of the cost per annum against all taxable income for 10 years. Where an existing house has been refurbished, the annual relief amounts to 10 per cent.
With Co Longford now being marketed as lying within the extended Dublin commuter belt, housing output in the area is set to increase by 500 per cent from 300 to 1,500 units per year, according to Mr Mac An Bheatha. There is also pressure for new homes in scenic locations.
But Mr John Tiernan, the Leitrim county manager, believes local authorities in the Upper Shannon region are capable of controlling development pressures fuelled by the tax incentive scheme. "It is not happening in a scatter-gun, uncontrolled way."
Though no integrated area plan has been drawn up, Mr Tiernan says the scheme is bound to have a positive effect in "broadening the spectrum of human habitation" in rural areas, particularly in north Leitrim, which has been depleted of population over many years.
One indication that the planners are becoming more strict is that the rate of refusals for applications in Co Leitrim increased from 7.2 per cent in 1999 to 11.8 per cent in the first quarter of this year. "We are looking at everything on its merits," said Mr Gerry Doyle, senior staff officer.
Leitrim County Council is due to make a decision shortly on plans by MBNA, a US credit card company, for a major call centre on a 13-acre site outside Carrick-on-Shannon. It would employ up to 350 people, generating much the same economic spin-off for the area as Masonite.
An Taisce has expressed serious reservations about the scheme, not least on traffic grounds, and it has been warned that the project might be lost if it lodges an appeal with An Bord Pleanala. A number of meetings have been held in an effort to resolve the issues.
The "pilot" scheme of tax incentives, which drew MBNA to Carrick-on-Shannon, was supposed to end on December 31st, 2001, but the deadline was extended by a further 12 months by this year's Finance Act.