Fears new flagship Dunnes Store in Waterford will ‘have a huge detrimental effect’ on south Wexford economy

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

While the people of Waterford are rejoicing at the prospect of a new flagship Dunnes Stores being developed on the site of the Ferrybank Shopping Centre the news has set alarm bells ringing further up the road. With the proposed new store situated approximately 15 minutes from New Ross, there are fears it will lure many of the Wexford town’s shoppers away from local retailers.

Speaking at the September meeting of Wexford County Council (WCC) Councillor Michael Sheehan said New Ross had to respond in turn to this new development.

“Could our economic section go and look in its toolkit and see what we can do for New Ross and south Wexford to mitigate against having a retail site literally outside our town centre,” he asked. “This will have a huge detrimental effect on the economy of south Wexford, especially if it goes ahead to the scale it’s planned for.

"It’ll be very difficult to get anything into New Ross now. What incentives, plans, and strategies can we come up with to counteract this?”

Pointing to a Local Enterprise Office (LEO) which has created more than 1,200 jobs over the past decade, chief executive of WCC, Eddie Taaffe, said it would be business as usual for the council’s economic team.

“We’ll continue to do what we’ve always done, we have one of the best LEOs in the country and we have strong plans for the development of New Ross. We will continue to try and strengthen the town in any way we can.”