The Roscommon Herald   WEDNESDAY, 27th SEPTEMBER, 2000   page 17

City Plans On The Drawing Board

Since early this year, one of the talking points among the public and the media has been a £75 billion proposal to site a new city on the Mayo-Roscommon border. The project is being driven by William A. Thomas, a Galway businessman who spent some years in the United States and then returned to his native country to set up his own business. The proposal has been treated with derision in some quarters but, following a public meeting in Ballaghaderreen in September, is now generating debate locally.

By Angela Doyle

Mr Thomas has claimed that he already has promised backing of £20 billion and will require no Government assistance bar tax incentives and legislation to speed up the planning process.

Mr Thomas’s proposals include the decentralisation of three Government Departments, a new university, museum and international hospital and the provision of gas-fired power from the new gas fields off the West coast.

The project has been dubbed ‘City of the Sacred Heart’ although Mr Thomas has made it clear that this wasn’t a serious suggestion for a name.

Mr Thomas’s plans for a city on a five-square-mile plot of land on the Mayo-Roscommon border arose from his sense of the injustice of the East-West economic divide in Ireland. He has claimed that he will have £75 billion worth of backers within seven months.

He also claims that there has been extensive further interest from more companies, including Virgin Trains, who are interested in a £5 billion investment in the city’s transport system which will incorporate a 50-minute rail link to Dublin. Mr Thomas has said he is aware of between 50 and 65 other companies who would like to get involved in the West of Ireland. He envisages that he will have no trouble raising the other £55 billion and expects to be presenting firm proposals to the Government within months.