Interview: Offaly County Council’s new chief executive looks ahead

The new chief executive of Offaly County Council said that, despite its central location, Offaly is being "bypassed" by major national road routes and would benefit from improved transport links.

Eoghan Ryan took up his role as the top local authority official in the county in February, and, in an interview with the Offaly Independent, he cited the need for stronger transport arteries in and around the county as an area where he would like to see improvement.

He said Offaly would continue to be a national leader in green energy production, but that the council doesn't want "wall-to-wall" wind turbines, solar farms and battery storage facilities.

"We do not want to see them from one end of the county to the other. We do want to see what our county development plan refers to as a reasonable balance," said Mr Ryan.

He said that, while the Just Transition fund has been beneficial for Offaly, there are concerns at present about what its next phase will consist of, and whether the current level of EU funding will be sustained.

Mr Ryan also said Offaly's tourism offering also has potential to grow further, arguing it could attract more short-break visitors from Dublin seeking "unrushed" tourism in Ireland's 'Hidden Heartlands'.

"The cutaway bogs have a unique landscape. It's a low horizon, big sky landscape which offers a network of amenity trails that we can promote," he said, adding that Offaly could use another hotel to help bring in more bus tours.

He was born in Dublin, and grew up in Waterford and Meath, but Mr Ryan has family ties to the Faithful County. His mother, Ursula Daly, is a native of The Island, Ballycumber."My granny had a farm there, and later moved to Kilclonfert, so I'm familiar with both sides of the county in that regard," he said.

"I used to spend a lot of my summer holidays in Offaly with various aunts and uncles, footing turf on the bog, dealing with cattle, going to marts and all of that kind of stuff. So I have a very strong affinity with the county."

American experience

Coming out of college in the early-90s, when Ireland's unemployment rate was high, Mr Ryan began his career in the North-West corner of the United States. Having graduated with a Masters in regional urban planning, he worked in two local authorities in Washington State, one in Seattle and one between Seattle and Portland, Oregon.

After returning to Ireland he worked for the (since disbanded) National Building Agency for 15 years and then, in the aftermath of the Celtic Tiger's collapse, became a senior advisor at the Department of Housing, dealing with unfinished housing developments - the so-called "ghost estates".

He was then "seconded into the Department of Social Protection" which he said gave him "experience in managing large teams", before joining Kildare County Council as a Director of Services in 2019.

Four busy months

With the retirement of the previous Offaly County Council chief executive Anna Marie Delaney at the beginning of this year, Mr Ryan was appointed as her successor and took up on the role on February 9.

Four months in, how has he found it so far?

"It's been great. Very busy. Very demanding. But very enjoyable at the same time," he said. "A lot of my focus has been on trying to get to know the team and the culture of the organisation, getting to know the elected members, and getting to know the lie of the land.

"I have been out to each of the Municipal District areas and had a tour of them. We've had a lot of openings for different energy infrastructure projects as well, so that's brought me out to Derrinlough, over to Edenderry, Cloncreen, and various other places."

He said he has been focused on arranging meetings with the council's key stakeholders, such as State and semi-State agencies, local groups, and others.

"It's been kind of demanding trying to fit them all in, but it's really important because in local Government we're heavily dependent on Government agencies in trying to steer and direct policy and also secure funding for projects," he explained.

He's also been getting to know the elected members of Offaly County Council, whom, he said, have been "very good" to work with.

"We have a very positive working relationship and there's great mutual respect there," he said.

Transport need

Discussing the need for better regional "connectivity" to Offaly, Mr Ryan said the county is essentially being bypassed by the motorway network.

"There's reasonably good access on the N52 up to Kilbeggan, and onto the motorway network there, but it does need improvement and it's planned to try to reactivate a new (N52 Tullamore to Kilbeggan Link Road).

"But I think (Offaly's) regional connectivity could be improved significantly. The N80 to Portlaoise and the regional roads to both Portarlington and over to Emo, the R420 and the R422 are very poor, really, and I would say substandard when compared to what's being provided in the North West of Ireland, the South West and the South East.

"So I think a focus is going to be trying to leverage more funding and or at least get plans in place to improve (the road network)," he said.

"We have the rail network, but we could do with a dual track serving Tullamore. I think those two things could unlock even more potential.

"I don't want to overstate those negative points, because the county is still very well-located, but those enhancements would certainly assist it in terms of its economic journey and that transition away from the peat industry."

Just Transition

To date, the EU Just Transition Fund has committed some €169 million in funding to support the areas of Ireland most negatively affected by the move away from fossil fuels and commercial peat extraction.

Eoghan Ryan pointed out that this was "not an insignificant amount" but he noted that there was some uncertainty about how long such funding would continue to be directed to counties such as Offaly.

He said the Just Transition fund to date had been used to support tourism projects and facilitate job creation by boosting the skills base, but he acknowledged a major "flagship" project had not emerged.

"I don't think we've seen a flagship project from (Just Transition) but at the same time I don't think there's a silver bullet. The approach of looking at multiple strands is probably not unreasonable.

"I suppose I'd be slightly concerned that, from what I know of the Just Transition programme around the coal mines of Germany, that's been a much bigger capital investment over a longer period of time.

"Maybe it's just the relative scale and importance of those industries to the economy there, but I do think there's a lot of uncertainty about what the next phase (of Just Transition in Ireland) is going to look like.

"There is an indication that there will be more money available, but that maybe it will come via a different avenue. That is a bit concerning - that instead of gearing up we could be winding down."

He said he had recently been invited by MEP Ciaran Mullooly to meet with the European Commission's Executive Vice President, Raffaele Fitto, in Dublin, and that he used that opportunity to "advocate for the region and the county" and to make the case for continued Just Transition funding here. "So we'll wait and see," he said.

Tullamore's unique identity

Sitting in the offices of Aras an Chontae in Tullamore, Mr Ryan spoke positively about the county town, which he feels has "retained its unique identity... that kind of market town identity".

He said the town is "well-provided with car parking" and has been enhanced by some significant public realm projects, with others in the pipeline.

"We have a number of (funding) applications in under the new Town and Cities Regeneration Investment Fund, so we're looking at more public realm improvements for Church Street, Patrick Street, and Harbour Street," he said.

"We do own land near the harbour area, though Waterways Ireland is the main landowner there. They have commissioned a study now for the feasibility of uses on that site, which we very much want to see progressed.

"We have another funding application in, for the back of the library, that would link O'Connor Square back out to Church Street. There's what's known as the hidden bridge there, and we're looking at an urban garden and tackling some of the dereliction on that street as well.

"And we have some interesting things like looking at an application for a mobility hub by the railway station. The town is identified as a Decarbonisation Zone, which will hopefully leverage other benefits as well."

On housing, he said the council has exceeded its target of delivering some 460 social housing units between 2022 and 2026. Although housing affordability is a national issue, he said he didn't think it was as bad in Offaly as in many other counties.

And when discussing the issue of tackling dereliction and vacant properties, he said: "Even the threat of a cuompulsory purchase order (CPO) seems to be enough, in some cases, to activate some of those properties - to get the owners to either sell them or start work on them themselves".

Family life

A resident of county Kildare, near its border with Wicklow at Blessington, Mr Ryan is happily married to Orla and they have four sons, aged between 11 and 20.

When asked about his interests outside of work, he said he is never bored.

"I'm always restless, always on the go doing something," he said.

"I love the outdoors: gardening, hiking, canoeing. I have two Canadian canoes, so I like getting off on lakes on the inland waterways and doing a bit of camping, even, just to get away from it all.

"Aside from that, I'm a falconer, a beekeeper, and I do a bit of painting. So I have multiple interests on the go."

Optimistic about Offaly

Looking ahead, he said he was optimistic about Offaly and saw opportunities to attract more visitors to the county.

"Further west in the county you have the River Shannon going through it and great towns like Banagher and Shannonbridge. Banagher has its own indigenous industries there, Clara has some very good companies, and Ferbane has the enterprise park that's doing very well.

"Birr has the castle and it's a great town with a lot of public realm improvement there," he said.

He added that the council has been "actively engaged" with Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland in looking at how it can help promote the county better.

"I think a lot of the focus might be on 'unrushed' tourism in Ireland's Hidden Heartlands. There's great potential to enhance the tourism offer for the county," he concluded.