IKEA will open here if the cap fits

SWEDISH retailer IKEA has told the government it will provide 500 jobs and invest €100 million in its first Irish store if the cap on retail warehouses is lifted.

The furniture superstore group has said it wants to open a 28,000 square metre store, somewhere near the M50, but will not do so unless the planning guidelines introduced five years ago are changed. The government is expected to launch a review of the guidelines next month.

According to files released by the Department of the Environment under freedom of information, IKEA has been lobbying the government since 2002, when it wrote to then Junior Minister Dan Wallace saying it wanted to gain a foothold in Ireland but would not do so unless the cap on the size of retail warehouses was lifted.