Planning officials have expressed serious concern over a €7 billion plan to build a 2,000-acre theme park outside Lusk, Co Dublin, describing the proposals as "utterly unsustainable", writes Carl O'Brien
A consortium of investors and developers yesterday unveiled plans for a massive development in North Dublin, known as Vega City. It says it would attract 37 million tourists annually, employ 40,000 people and result in the biggest investment in the State's history.
The consortium, United Entertainment Partners (UEP), says the plans - which also include the world's longest monorail, 300,000 square metres of retail space, 10,000 apartments and 14 hotels - would make Ireland the largest family-entertainment holiday destination in Europe.
Mr Louis Maguire, managing director of UEP, declined to reveal the identity of international investors behind the project, but claimed that around €2.5 billion had already been secured to progress with the first phase of the project.
The consortium, chaired by Cork property developer Mr Owen O'Callaghan, has been meeting councillors in Fingal County Council to discuss plans ahead of next week's council meeting where the proposals will be discussed.
However council planning officials, who have been in discussions with the consortium over the project, have already effectively rejected the proposals.
In a report on the planned development published yesterday, it said the proposals flouted existing development plans, would cause major traffic congestion and were likely to be economically unsustainable.
It also said that if the theme park does not attract the predicted visitor numbers over time, it is likely there will be pressure to redevelop the area for residential or commercial purposes.
The report states: "The only comparable type of development that relies and survives on its entertainment pull would be possibly Las Vegas in the US. No details are submitted in respect of comparative examples of developments of this scale including their context and levels of success."
Mr David O'Connor, Fingal County Council's director of services for planning, said: "The sheer numbers are just impossible to accommodate in the country, let alone this area.
"It would be an enormous imposition. For example, it would see a total of 60 million passengers passing through Dublin Airport a year, compared to Heathrow which has 53 million passengers a year," he said.
Mr O'Connor said officials had approached the plans in as neutral a way as possible, but they could not conceive how the county could support the plans.
Mr Maguire, however, said he was "disappointed" at the response of planning officials, and said it was important that the plans were first debated by councillors and locals.
While Dublin is the consortium's primary choice for the development, there were locations in other European countries which the group is considering if the plans are rejected.
"I'm very upset that it is being rejected by some people. Think of what it could do for Ireland and the country as a whole. To shoot it down now is very sad.
"Look at what Disneyland did for Orlando, with well-paid jobs, a lovely environment, and making kids and people smile."
Mr Maguire rejected suggestions that the development was an elaborate attempt to secure land for housing or commercial development, and insisted the consortium was determined to press ahead with the plans.
The group has identified a site around 10 kilometres north of Dublin Airport, with access to the M1 motorway and N1 routes.
If Fingal County Council approved the project in principle, UEP said it would then move to secure options to purchase the land, subject to full planning permission.
It has already been in discussion with some landowners to see if they are willing to sell plots of land in the area.
The plans, which would take 10 years to carry out, would also include a conference centre for at least 10,000 delegates, a major sports centre, an 18-hole championship golf course, an equestrian centre and an ice rink.
The retail element of the plan would include large shopping malls based on a number of international city themes, such as Venice, New York, Paris, Rome, Moscow and Tokyo.
Accommodation in Vega City would include 14 three-, four- and five-star hotels, as well as 10,000 apartments sleeping four to six people per night.