€460m sport, leisure complex planned

A PLANNING application for what Michael Lowry TD has described as “the most sophisticated and ambitious project that Ireland has ever seen” will be lodged with North Tipperary County Council this morning.

The Independent TD was speaking yesterday in Horse and Jockey at the launch of a €460 million cultural, sporting and leisure development featuring a huge casino and new all-weather racecourse.

The development, called the Tipperary Venue, is proposed for an 800-acre site close to the village of Two-Mile-Borris in the heart of Mr Lowry’s Tipperary North constituency.

The developer, Richard Quirke, did not speak during a one-hour presentation to invited guests. Mr Lowry said he wished “to explain to the media who he is”.

The former Fine Gael minister said: “In these times of economic challenge, our country needs businessmen like Richard Quirke” whom he described as “a local man made good who wanted to give something back”.

He praised his “ambition, vision and innovation” and thanked him for “having the strength and courage to commission this massive development.”

After the event, Mr Quirke, a former garda, told The Irish Times that he had “made a lot of money” from property in Dublin including the sale of the old Carlton cinema. His company, the Dublin Pool and Juke Box Co, runs the Dr Quirkey’s Good Time Emporium arcade on O’Connell Street.

Mr Quirke, who is from Thurles, has bought the land and already spent €30 million on the Tipperary Venue project.

He said he had “considerable monies” and was confident that he could raise financial backing from “foreign investors”. He would not approach Irish banks because “even if they were interested”, he “wouldn’t go near them”.

Mr Lowry said “no State money” would be needed for the project “which will float on its own commercial merit”. He was confident that planning permission would be secured by the end of the year and that construction could start early in 2010.

An estimated 1,000 jobs would be created in building the facility, which would eventually create 2,000 full-time jobs.

Mr Lowry said, however, the project was dependent on the Oireachtas passing proposed new legislation to enable the opening of casinos. The plans had “already been presented to the Taoiseach”, Ministers and other officials and “got a warm response”. He was confident that the necessary legislation would be passed and that there would be no objections to the plans, which have “the full support of the local community”.

Dublin architect Brian O’Connell, who designed the Tipperary Venue, said it would include a 500-bedroom, five-star hotel; a vast 6,000sq m casino; an all-weather racecourse; a greyhound track and a golf course.

It would also include an underground entertainment centre with a retractable roof capable of holding 15,000 people which would be “the rural equivalent of Dublin’s 02 complex”.

Mr O’Connell said Ireland’s gambling laws were “outdated” and that the Department of Justice was broadly in support of the plans” for the casino.

The site, which is located off the M8 Dublin-Cork motorway, would also feature a full-size replica of the White House in Washington as “a memorial to James Hoban”, the 18th-century Irish architect from Co Kilkenny who emigrated to the US and won a competition to design the president’s residence.

The “Tipperary White House” would be used as “a banqueting facility” and also to host wedding receptions. A chapel is to be built in the grounds which will have parking for up to 8,000 cars and “aerial access” via a large heliport.

The existing racecourse at Thurles is to be closed when the new facility is built. The project claims to have the backing of Horse Racing Ireland.

Irish Times

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Compost plant granted by An Bord Pleanála

A NEW compost production plant which could create up to 30 jobs in north Tipperary has been given the go-ahead by An Bord Pleanála.

Acorn Recycling Ltd hopes to have the plant up-and-running by late 2009. It is a subsidiary of the Thurles-based environment company, Arlo Group.

The plant, which will process organised-base material at a seven-acre site, will be the largest of its kind in the country.

The state-of-the-art facility will be developed close to Ballybeg — near a Bord na Móna factory.

The company has spent the last two years preparing all the necessary environmental impact studies and submissions to North Tipperary County Council as part of a comprehensive planning process.

The site is surrounded by 60 acres of willow plantation.

The agri-environmental business will create in the region of 30 jobs for local operators, tradesmen, farmers and transport / logistics, with a yearly spend in the region of €6 million.

Rónán Beasley, managing director of Acorn Recycling, said: “We are extremely pleased to be given the go-ahead in relation to our composting facility and believe that it will bring significant benefits to the local community and neighbouring counties.

“I would like to thank the local community, North Tipperary County Council and our local elected representatives for their continuous support which has been essential.”

The facility, he said, will be in operation by October 2009.

The proposed facility will be located 3km from the new M8 and will be an essential piece of infrastructure enabling the region to meet its recycling objectives.

The organic based material will be processed into a high-quality product

Meanwhile, the Arlo Group has recently appointed Dungarvan-based Benny McCarthy as group financial director. The Co Waterford man is a commerce graduate of UCC. He previously worked as a commercial lending manager for Ulster Bank in Cork and was finance director of Flancare Group in Clonmel since 1999.

Irish Examiner

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