Task force needed to 'drive on' Tipperary campus, says Clonmel councillor

A call has been made for the establishment of a task force/focus group to help develop the promised business, science and technology campus on the 280-acre Ballingarrane estate on the outskirts of Clonmel.

Making that request, Cllr Michael Murphy said the site had been purchased 20 years ago, a decision that he said was appropriately described at the time as “courageous and forward thinking”. 

In 2005, just under 52 acres of the site were sold to IDA Ireland in order to realise the council’s ambition for the site as a business, science and technology campus. 

However Cllr Murphy says “unfortunately, 20 years on, this vision has yet to be realised”.

“We need to sit down with the minister, the IDA and the council around the table in terms of driving on with the masterplan (which the council produced last year).  

“We just cannot continue to sit on our hands and still be looking at a green field site in 2030.”

Cllr Murphy will raise the issue at the January meeting of Tipperary County Council and he has also written to Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, asking how many visits by foreign direct investment-type companies had been made to the site since 2005, and if any developments had taken place since last year’s publication of the Ballingarrane masterplan by the council.

He has also asked what are the main reasons regarding the lack of any progress over the last 15 years.

Cllr Murphy said it was disappointing that the vision of the former county manager Ned Gleeson and the council members at the time for a high-tech business park at Ballingarrane had yet to be realised, 20 years after the purchase of the site.

While he welcomed the publication of the masterplan, he asked what steps were being taken by the council to implement the strategy, and to what extent was the IDA engaging with the council to promote the site.

“How many IDA visits to the site have there been in the last five years,” he asked.

Cllr Murphy said it was very important that key stakeholders from industry were involved in any task force/focus group to develop the site. 

“At the January meeting of the council I’ll be calling for the establishment of a task force with an independent chair that would include key members of the council’s management team, representatives from established industry, local business organisations and other key stakeholders,” he said. 

“Such a task force would bring a renewed focus to the site, deal with any challenges head on and engage with the IDA, our Oireachtas members and Government with the key objective being to implement the vision contained in the Ballingarrane masterplan launched in April 2019; and if necessary, modify the masterplan as part of the ongoing county development plan process.”

Clonmel and south Tipperary has had an excellent record in the last 35-40 years of attracting industry to the area, particularly in the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors, and representatives of those long-established industries should be included on the task force, he stated.

The Ballingarrane site is “absolutely key” in terms of Clonmel realising its status as a key town - a large scale urban centre functioning as a self-sustaining regional driver - under the regional spatial and economic strategy adopted at the beginning of the year, says Cllr Murphy. 

Meanwhile, Anthony Fitzgerald, Tipperary County Council’s head of enterprise and economic development,  has described Ballingarrane as “the opportunity site for the county and the region”.

He stated that a business, science and technology campus would be developed on the site in the next five to ten years. 

It would take time and wasn’t “a quick fix.”

Available land was scarce around the country and there were very few places that had upwards of 200 acres, which they had in Ballingarrane, for industrial development.

The campus was divided into a total of seven precincts, which establishes a framework for the sustainable development of Ballingarrane as a strategic business, science and technology campus.  

“Ballingarrane comprises a sufficient scale of serviced land capable of meeting the requirements of a range of users, from start-up enterprises to stand alone multi-nationals. 

“Future occupants of the campus will benefit from the high-quality natural environment and planned recreational amenities.” 

Mr Fitzgerald said that Ballingarrane offered a high profile, strategic employment location, with excellent road and public transport linkages to major cities, airports and ports. 

He stated that the nearby Questum Acceleration Centre, which was now regarded as one of the most successful for its size in the country and internationally, had been in operation for the past five years. 

This in turn had led to visits to the area by other companies interested in setting up facilities. 

He said that Questum was home to leading start-up companies such as Shorla Pharma, JED Pharma, A&C Biobuffers, Theradep, Health and Fitness International, Advanced Plasma Tech and Oneboxvision. 

“Questum is serving as a marketing suite for the entire campus and there is interest from both national and international companies.”

With 4,500 people working in manufacturing and the professional services in Clonmel, which included companies that were indigenous to the area, he said that the town was “the jewel in the crown” of the county and the region, adding “we are very strong but not complacent”.

He said that the relative cost of living in Clonmel and south Tipperary, as opposed to larger urban centres, was also a very attractive proposition. 

The people who were working in Questum were a typical example of people making that type of choice.

Better still, these people had come to the area and set up their firms that were feeding into the larger companies, Mr Fitzgerald added.  

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