Athlone City Project ‘would be enormous’ for Roscommon

Local authorities and politicians need to campaign for the Athlone City Project, Oran businessman Sean Mulryan told a meeting of Roscommon County Council last week.

“It is now for everyone to put pressure on the people in power to deliver this, it is in their hands,” he said. He asked councillors and officials to “get on the phones” to ensure that the project crossed the line, “and get them to press the green button”.

“And let’s get on with it.” Following an invitation from the local authority, the Ballymore property group gave a presentation to councillors on the ambitious project for the Midlands. The project would see a new, sustainable Athlone City designed to accommodate a population of 100,000 by the year 2040. Under this proposal, there would also be a major expansion of the Technological University of the Shannon.

Mr Mulryan said that the process began around 8 years ago, when they saw the congestion in Dublin and the problems with student accommodation, saying that the capital was “basically bursting at the seams”.

He stressed that continuing to add to the size and scale of Dublin “didn’t seem to make an awful lot of sense”.

Looking at examples around Europe, including Copenhagen, they looked at how others went about starting a new city.

“The one thing you must have is an anchor. You can’t guarantee jobs in this world but you can guarantee students,” he said. “You have a young, growing population and a great education system in Ireland.” He said that under the plan, TUS Athlone could grow to up to 25,000 students.

“We started with that as being the anchor to the new city,” he said.

He said that three years ago, he met the former Taoiseach Brian Cowen, former EU Commissioner Phil Hogan and Head of Goldman Sachs Adrian Jones.

“I mentioned that I was disappointed that we weren’t going forward at pace,” Mr Mulryan said. But he was urged to keep going, and further meetings with the powers that be were organised.

“At this stage, we have met almost all of the senior ministers across the parties,” he continued, saying they all asked him to continue with the plan. Among them are Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Simon Harris, Minister for Finance Jack Chambers, as well as other ministers and members of the opposition.

A project of this nature so close to Roscommon and the North West, he said, would be transformative.

“The economic impact, for education, and for young people who don’t have to emigrate would be enormous,” the Oran native said.

Mr Mulryan said that the government’s role was essential.

“This can’t go forward without total commitment by government,” he said, adding that the project would require a body similar to the Dublin Dockland Development Authority, with CPO powers.

“We’re leading the project to a certain point, but there is a point we hand the baton over to the government,” he said. “If we want to do something in Athlone we have to bid for it the same as everyone, as every other competitor…That’s the only way this would be successful.” In terms of how much the project would cost, he told the Taoiseach that it was very early days.

“Probably for the first five years, it’s approximately a billion a year of a commitment to get this project up and running, starting with the university. The next stages are the master plan and infrastructure,” he said. “You bring them all along together but the most important piece is the university.

“To get this going, it’s going to have to come from the top down. It's going to have to see the Taoiseach of the day appoint a senior civil servant and have it as their priority.” The overseeing authority would then be appointed to work with the local councils.

“It is a very good time for Ireland to start reinventing itself. There is a budget surplus at the moment. The beauty of these infrastructure projects is the payback is huge. It is early days, but it has to come from the top down and it has to start now. If we want to hit 2040 it has to start now.” Regarding the type of housing for the project, he said he did not envision any high rise residential buildings, citing costs.

He said the project has received universal support from politicians but needed someone to “press the button and say ‘now we’re going to do it’".

"That’s all outside of our power, we have brought it a certain amount of the way, it's down now to the Taoiseach’s office and his team.” Speaking about the possibility of a new airport in Athlone, Mr Mulryan felt that with better transport infrastructure, Knock Airport would serve the project.

“It is nearing a million passengers now and it has a lot of potential,” he said.

*Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.