Road delays to keep store closed for a year

THE opening of retail giant Ikea’s first Irish store could be delayed by up to a year because contractors for the National Roads Authority (NRA) will not finish access roads for customers on time.

The doors could remain shut on Ballymun’s flagship project until late 2009, despite the fact it looks set to be finished this year.

It emerged at the public accounts committee (PAC) yesterday that the building of a route linking Ballymun and the M50, in north Dublin, looks set to take another 12 months after the Ikea store is built.

Ikea’s store is due to be completed in November or December this year. The director of Ballymun’s regeneration scheme Ciarán Murray admitted the Ikea could remain “locked up” for a year.

Under planning laws, Ikea cannot open until the Ballymun/M50 motorway interchange is finished.

The National Roads Authority has said it cannot push its contractor to speed up the road works, the committee heard. This could also lead to “significant” extra costs for Ballymun’s regeneration.

Ikea, the Swedish group renowned for flat-pack furniture, intend to employ 500 people when its first store in the Republic opens. Up to 250 local people will be guaranteed work, but the influx of money and jobs into the area looks set to be stalled by the road building.

PAC chairman Bernard Allen said he would have expected greater co-operation between the Ballymun regeneration scheme and the NRA, but now it looked like the store would be unopened for a year.

Earlier, the committee heard that a failure to originally include salaries and administration costs in the Ballymun scheme had led to huge underestimates of its final cost.

Ballymun’s regeneration is now expected to cost e942 million, over double the e442m estimated in 1999.

The Department of Environment ‘s secretary general Geraldine Tallon said the nature of the scheme was completely unprecedented, regenerating an area with its occupants.

But Ballymun’s overhaul will now be six years late, finishing in 2012.

Ms Tallon admitted her department had noticed “slippage” in the project but it had been a “learning experience.” Recommendations on the scheme will now be used in future regeneration projects, such as Moyross, Co Limerick.

Future regeneration schemes must now be costed by local authorities and include feasibility studies, she added.

The State’s spending watchdog John Purcell, in his report to the PAC, said delays were to blame for the extra costs. Setbacks have also included the failure to secure a new shopping centre and a business park for the area.

Labour’s Róisin Shorthall said education in the area was a significant issue, considering a survey had showed only 26% of pupils in Ballymun passed the Leaving Certificate, compared to 74% nationally.