In Dublin 15, the council is pushing ahead to develop a new business park at Cherryhound

The development of the planned Cherryhound Business Park on about 90 acres west of the airport is going too slowly, said Fine Gael Councillor Kieran Dennison recently.

“There was a time when, certainly after the downturn, when there was a huge drive to rebuild the economy and rebuild our industrial and commercial base,” Dennison said. 

“And I'm not sure where that is now,” he said, at a meeting of Fingal County Council’s Blanchardstown area committee meeting on 1 May.

There has been progress at Cherryhound though, said Natalie Dineen, a council administrative officer. 

Since the council first asked for expressions of interest last September from companies that might want to set up there, they got 27 statements of interest, Dineen said.

Of those, the council ruled out 10, “which did not align with the Council’s vision for the development of the land”, according to a report she presented at the meeting.

“And as laid out in the report, there is one primary applicant that we're dealing with at the moment who has the requirement in for a substantial amount of the land based in Cherryhound,” Dineen said at the meeting.

Dennison, the Fine Gael councillor, said the number of applicants showed the demand “for commercial business lands in the county and in proximity to the N2”. 

So he was concerned that the council’s mostly focusing on one applicant “first before we get around to dealing with the others”, he said.

But Dineen said that’s not the case. “We're also in negotiations currently with another three to four applicants,” she said. 

Fianna Fáil Councillor Tom Kitt asked how the applicants were screened and chosen.

“I thought there was more discussion of people obtaining smaller parts of land, than you going for the bigger people,” Kitt said.

Dineen said the council was picking applicants that best fit its goals – namely, boosting the local economy, a commitment to sustainability, “and, I suppose job creation, the types of jobs, and obviously, how many jobs that would be created in the long term”.

Dennison asked if there was anything councillors could do to help speed up the process of developing the business park, “in terms of providing resources or budgets, then, you know, please let us know”.  

“Because up until maybe a year ago, people felt there wasn't a great urgency in terms of FDI [foreign direct investment] and increasing our economic footprint. But I think that's changing very much so now, and we have to be very conscious of that in the year ahead,” he said.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.