Political shenanigans scuppered 1990 plan for 85m holiday development in mullingar

Twenty-five years ago, Westmeath could have had a Center Parcs-type development, of the nature of that announced last week for Newcastle Woods, near Ballymahon.
In May 1990, a planning application was lodged with Westmeath County Council for an £85m luxury all-weather tourist complex, which the developers said could be in place within three years.
This was no 'pie in the sky’ dream: all the plans were done, and most of the funding commitments were in place, reveals Christy Maye, proprietor of The Greville Arms Hotel, who was behind the mammoth proposal.
It included plans for a hotel, holiday houses and a conference centre on the shores of Lough Ennell.
But, he says, what sunk the project was what he terms “political shenanigans”.
“We had funding for a substantial portion, including a commitment of £6m from the Irish government, through Bord Fáilte,” says Christy, speaking carefully so he doesn’t say on the record what he believes happened behind the scenes. “However,” he continued, “as the project progressed, the government funding was cut by two thirds – and even that amount wasn’t guaranteed – so this effectively scuppered the whole project.”

Center Parcs
Recalling 1990 when the planning was happening for his proposal for Belvedere, Mr Maye points out that at the time, Ireland was going through a jobs crisis.
“It was even worse than it is now, and we thought it would be an ideal project for the midlands to create up to 1,000 jobs.”
As he was in the hotel business, he could see that visitor numbers to this country were on the rise.
“But the problem was our tourist season is only four or five months long,” he points out. Christy began exploring the sort of holiday developments in existence in Europe and the US – and even got Center Parcs interested in the Mullingar proposal, and discussions took place with Center Parcs, “and that was the prime reason we were trying to get them – because of the amount of jobs that could be created in the midlands, and it would have been an all-year round facility”.
“At the time, we had discussed it for Belvedere, and in case that did not work out, I had bought another site of 220 acres further down Lough Ennell as an alternative.”
The architect involved opened a door to another potential source of investment, and after a number of meetings it became evident that the project could be entirely funded. In addition there would be some government funding, which was identified as being available at that time for a major flagship project.
But, he reveals, after letting the project run to the extent that it was submitted to Westmeath County Council for planning permission, the project was effectively “scuppered” because the funding Bord Fáilte had indicated would be available, failed to materialise.