Ikea begins talks with Fingal local authority planners

Furniture retail giant Ikea has begun a series of meetings with Fingal County Council planning officials in preparation for siting a 28,000-square-metre outlet in the local authority's area.

Talks were at a very early stage, a senior planning official with the council said, but the council would look favourably on the Ikea proposal if the company could comply with the county's planning regulations.

The main considerations for locating such a large store within the county were that traffic on the national primary routes, which include the M50, would not be adversely affected and that access to Dublin Airport would not be impeded.

The Swedish furniture company had a meeting with the council 12 months ago which was described as a "basic exploration" of the possibility of locating in north Dublin.

However, following the recent announcement by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Roche, that he was lifting the planning cap on superstores, Ikea re-established contact with Fingal County Council and met senior officials last Wednesday.

"We reiterated what we had told them on the previous occasion a year ago ... they would have to be very careful that the development would not have any adverse implications for the national primary routes and that access to the airport was a national priority and could not be compromised," the council's director of planning, Mr David O'Connor, said.

However, he said, if all the planning guidelines could be met, the council was in favour of Ikea locating in the county.

"The county can take this type of development. Our own retail strategy, from 12 months ago, made provision for this if and when the Minister decided to lift the barrier."

The council expects to receive formal notification of which site Ikea intends to develop next month; however, it is understood that the most likely location will be north Ballymun, between the M50 and Ballymun estate.

If Ikea decides to go ahead with the development, Fingal County Council expects to receive a planning application before the end of the year.

A spokeswoman for Ikea said she could not comment on its plans for any particular location, but the company was looking at "sites all over Ireland".

The removal of the planning restrictions will apply to eight places outside Dublin designated as "gateway" towns and cities in the National Spatial Strategy: Cork, Galway, Waterford, Limerick-Shannon, Dundalk, Letterkenny, Sligo and the Athlone-Tullamore-Mullingar triangle.

Dundalk's town clerk, Mr Frank Pentony, said he would not know if the town could accommodate a superstore such as Ikea until he received guidelines from the Department of the Environment.

However, he said: "If there is a suitable site, we would pull out all the stops to make it easy for them to come here."

South Dublin County Council said it knows sites that would suit a large retail development, but it has had no talks with Ikea.