Airport’s plea to Government

HOPES Ireland West Airport CEO Joe Gilmore hopes plans for the Strategic Development Zone at Knock can accelerate.


Edwin McGreal

The development of the strategic development zone (SDZ) at Ireland West Airport has the potential to create 6,000 jobs but specialist expertise will be needed to get it of the ground.
That’s according to Ireland West Airport CEO Joe Gilmore, who spoke to The Mayo News in a wide ranging interview this week.
In one of his final acts as Taoiseach, Enda Kenny zoned a 500 acre land bank around Knock Airport as a strategic development zone in 2017. Mayo County Council subsequently put in place a detailed planning scheme for the SDZ which was adopted by its councillors in late 2019.
The airport and its SDZ were recognised in 2018 in the Government’s National Development Plan, Project Ireland 2040.
An economic report on the SDZ in 2019 underlined the capacity for up to 6,000 jobs to be created in the SDZ.
However, then Covid hit and plans took a back step.
“We’re only really in the last couple of months getting our heads around the potential of the planning scheme and the zoning that was provided,” said Joe Gilmore.
In the past ten days he has met at the airport with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Minister for State for Aviation Jack Chambers as well as appearing at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications in Leinster House.
He feels that if the SDZ is to progress, outside expertise is crucial.
“We have been working with Mayo County Council and the Western Development Commission in looking at options for developing effectively a masterplan for zoned development. However it is a very significant piece of work.
“Our discussions with Government are that we’re not a development agency, we don’t have the skillsets and the resources to take on a task like that. Mayo County Council are not a large scale national development agency but they are an enabler to try to make it happen. So our discussions with Government is request Government to step in here in partnership with us to put resources of the State with expertise in strategic business park development and to develop a plan with us about how to move this forward,” he said.
Rail and road
Mr Gilmore also stressed the benefits of the airport’s location close to the N5 and soon to be upgraded N17 and the potential passenger and freight rail connections if the Western Rail Corridor is extended to Sligo.
He said the airport’s own history – built arguably in spite of the Government rather than because of it – is the perfect example of front loaded investment. The same can apply to a SDZ and rail connections, he argues.
“Our view would be you have to build it and they will come. The airport is the true evidence of that.
“I lived in the Netherlands in the 1990s for six or seven years and it was a totally different setup but if you put in infrastructure, it gives people confidence, good connectivity and people will relocate. You cannot say ‘I have to see the numbers first before I put in the infrastructure’, it doesn’t work like that. It takes investment.
“The potential for rail connection is there with the positive soundings from the All Island Rail Review. I’m hopeful it will come to my home town of Claremorris and that will encourage the next stage of it to Sligo.
“I’m a very strong advocate for the rail network. Greenways serve their own important role as well.
“Freight access can be a big help here with a successful SDZ. It all feeds into future development. You’re talking long-term, maybe in 10-20 years but you have to look to that future,” he said.

MORE See News Analysis, pages 22 and 23 in this week’s print edition of The Mayo News