REGIONAL co-operation is essential to the advancing of a proposal of a strategic development zone between Clare County Council and the University of Limerick, a Clare TD has stressed.
Clare TD, Michael McNamara (IND) said both parties need to engage fully and constructively with Limerick City and County Council and other regional interests in their bid to have the university campus in County Clare and its hinterland designated as an Economic Strategic Development Zone (SDZ).
Limerick City and County Council plus Oireachtas members in the Mid-West region must be fully behind the proposal to develop Europe’s first twenty first century university town if it is to pass the initial hurdle of receiving SDZ designation from Darragh O’Brien, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy McNamara maintained.
Establishing an SDZ has been targeted and zoned in successive County Development Plans. “The project was first announced in 2018 and it appears that progress has been slow in the intervening four years. However, it is better that the project garners the necessary support across the region before SDZ designation is sought,” the Scariff native stated.
He added, “I fully support this proposal which is hugely ambitious both in terms of its scale and its scope. Securing SDZ designation is the first step on a long road that will also include the development of a detailed masterplan and extensive engagement with stakeholders and landowners before the proposal ever proceeds to construction stage. Regional buy-in is therefore required in these early stages if the project is to proceed.”
“I call on Limerick City and County Council and all Oireachtas members from across the Mid-West to show their support for the project, which presents significant potential for the economic development of the region and country,” Deputy McNamara concluded.
