'Ardnacrusha would take 25 years to go through today's planning'
Ardnacrusha hydropower station in Co Clare. Mayor of Clare councillor Alan O’Callaghan told industry leaders: 'If you had to do Ardnacrusha today, it would take 25 years to get planning or get someone to make a decision on it'.
Industry leaders in the Midwest were told today that if the Government was to propose the Ardnacrusha hydropower station today, it would take 25 years to get through the planning process.
At a Shannon Chamber of Commerce luncheon at Dromoland Castle hotel, Mayor of Clare Fianna Fáil councillor Alan O’Callaghan lashed out at the current bottle-necks in the planning system that are delaying decisions.
Mr O’Callaghan instanced the case of Pat McDonagh’s planned Supermacs plaza for a site off the M18 outside Ennis a short distance from Dromoland Castle as an example of planning applications stalled by planning and legal hurdles.
Last September, the High Court cleared the way for the €10m project 10 years after plans were first lodged with Clare Co Council, with CEO Pat McDonagh stating last year that his firm had spent €1.5m on professional and legal fees.
Mr O’Callaghan said: “This week they broke ground for the Supermacs plaza down the road from us here and it took 10 years to get planning for that. For the love of Jesus are we gone backwards altogether?”
Fine Grain Property CEO Colin MacDonald told the luncheon that Ardnacrusha hydropower station, which was built in 1929, supplied 87% of the country’s energy needs at the time.
Mr O’Callaghan told industry leaders: “If you had to do Ardnacrusha today, it would take 25 years to get planning or get someone to make a decision on it.
Guest speaker at the event, IDA CEO Michael Lohan told Mr O’Callaghan that he could not disagree with his comments and they are a fair reflection of problems in the planning system.
He said: “The pace at which decisions are made are too slow."
“We as citizens of our State need to really have a reflection on ourselves and there are many, many projects that are national projects of national need that must get through the planning process.”
He said that we must get to a point of collective progress as opposed to an individual’s concern in the planning system.
“If we seriously want to uncap our offshore wind, our onshore wind and solar and if we want to bring water and wastewater capacity to sustain this economy we are going to have to make long term planning decisions which will be for the betterment of our State.”
Ahead of president Donald Trump’s Liberation Day announcement on tariffs, Mr Lohan said that getting into a tit for tat traffic is not going to be to anyone’s advantage.
He said: “Europe has to prepare a response and the response has to be proportionate and it is equally important we allow a period for negotiation.
“Does that mean that we might not get there? No. We may get there and that is not Europe’s first port of call or certainly not Ireland’s first port of call."
He said that tariffs are counter-productive in every shape and form and are not a good idea.
