'City of Thomas' plan for Mayo 'gathering dust'

The proposed new city of Mayo, the brainchild of Galway-based William Thomas, is being considered by the Department of the Environment and Local Government.

This was confirmed by Minister Dempsey in a Dáil Question and reply to Deputy Enda Kenny.

The Minister confirmed that he had received the submission and that it was being examined. He said that the initial round of public consultation has been followed by a period of extensive research during which a wide range of issues relating inter alia to population and Labour force projections; the future role of Dublin in Ireland and Europe, urban and rural functioning, factors driving the location of enterprise, quality of life issues, infrastructure and environmental protection were analysed and assessed.

He said that in relation to the possibility of creating new urban centres, the factors to be taken into account include impact on other towns and rural areas; maximising the benefits of current infrastructure in small and medium towns and international experience where new towns/cities have not generally been successfully realised.

Deputy Kenny said that the reply was Departmental verbiage of the highest order.

Said Deputy Kenny: "The Government are literally petrified of making a decision on this or other city developments until the next election is out of the way. Until then at least the proposal by Mr Thomas will continue to lie on a shelf along with many other proposals gathering a goodly amount of dust," he said.