Ireland's planning board is expected to rule shortly on a bid by chemist businesses in Killarney, Co Kerry to overturn acceptance of a major medical centre project as unfair competition.

They are asking An Bord Pleanála to rule on whether the town council's decision to allow a major medical centre into a new multi-storey building, originally planned for office and commercial use, in fact needs new planning permission.

The Irish Times has reported that the 105,000sq-ft glass-fronted Reeks Gateway, comprising multi-storey blocks at the northern entrance to Killarney, was built by developers Sundays Well Properties Ltd.

The local company was granted permission in 2004 and it was built at the height of the boom, but was never fully occupied.

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However, last June most of the town's GP practices, comprising 12 GPs, with the healthcare company Prime Healthcare Group, announced they were to fulfil a long-held ambition of a modern primary healthcare centre.

They said they would take up 50,000sq ft of the Gateway - just under half of the development - at a cost of some €25 million and that move is now nearing completion.

However, pharmacists in Killarney have been opposed to the plan, fearing for their livelihoods.

In October, after a submission, Killarney Town Council ruled there was no distinction in the planning between a medical centre and commercial uses of the building and therefore the move to the Gateway centre did not require planning and was exempt.

Now agents on behalf of Cormac and Owen Deasy, Park Road Pharmacy, Countess Road, Killarney, have referred the matter to An Bord Pleanála.

They say there is "a clear distinction" between commercial and medical uses and that medical centres give rise to different planning issues than commercial office uses. Government policy was also against the co-location of retail pharmacies and medical centres, the pharmacists state.

(BMcC/GK)