DIT PhD/Doctoral Project
Supervisor name & contact details:
Dr Edmund O’Callaghan
Edmund.ocallaghan@dit.ie
Research Centre Name and Website (if
applicable)
School of Retail and Services Management
Funding Agency
Scholarship Details
Subject Area
Retailing
Title of the Project
Retail Planning policy in Ireland: Facilitator or
Inhibitor of the Irish retail system.
Project Description
This project seeks to assess the impact of the Planning & Development Act (2000) on the
development of the Irish retail sector. This piece of retail planning legislation provided the basis
for a framework to guide local authorities in preparing development plans, in line with the broad
principles of ‘sustainable development’. The Irish retail market is one experiencing significant
structural change. An increase in enterprise density and market concentration levels are
indicative of the emergence of a more sophisticated retail system. The planning guidelines
perhaps, reflect both a strong political bias toward the protection of small independent operators
and a genuine concern for sustainable development. The general principles embodied in the
retail planning guidelines introduced in 2001 offer a reasonable compromise between economic
goals of market efficiency and the social need for sustainable development. It was expected that
the more prescriptive nature of the 2001 guidelines would achieve a greater level of consistency
in local authority decision making, while at the same time, the flexibility built into the guidelines
held out the possibility for a more efficient retail sector to develop. This project will assess the
effectiveness of these retail planning guidelines in the achievement of their stated objectives.
Research Question:
Has the Planning and Development Act (2000) facilitated or inhibited the development of an
efficient retail sector in Ireland.
This will involve:
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An investigation into internationally accepted measures of retail market efficiency.
An investigation into the rationale, implementation and effect of planning policy
internationally
An investigation into whether the Irish approach to retail planning follows best practice
internationally
An examination of local authority interpretation of the measures of the Planning and
Development Act (2000)
An investigation into the basis for local authority decision making
An assessment of the effectiveness of current Irish planning legislation in the
achievement of its objectives
The identification of the role of retail planning policy as a facilitator and/or inhibitor of
retail structural development
Please indicate the student requirements for this project
Minimum 2.1 (any discipline considered)
Deadline to submit applications (only for
funded projects)
Please choose College as appropriate
Arts & Tourism
Business
Engineering and Built Environment
Sciences & Health
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