Retail Market:Next Easter M&S will unveil a 2,114sq m (22,755sq ft) outlet in the Deerpark retail scheme in Killarney but its plans for a major store in Tralee are mired in controversy, writes Gretchen Friemann

One of the most controversial planning disputes to grip Co Kerry in recent years has resulted in the UK retail giant Marks & Spencer selecting the tourist town of Killarney as its location for a major new store.

The news is likely to ignite fresh anger in Tralee where the chain had originally planned to invest €6 million in a 2,787sq m (30,000sq ft) outlet that would have created 100 jobs.

Despite widespread public support for the proposal, local authorities twice rejected the application on the basis that its location - a mile outside the town in the Manor West retail scheme - would draw trade away from Tralee's centre. They also wanted the company to consider the headquarters of the GAA and an adjoining pitch which was located closer to the high street and was part of a development backed by local businessmen. While the growth of out-of-town retailing has sparked similar debates across the country in recent years, the timing of the M&S row transformed it into a key election issue earlier this year.

Such was the feeling on the subject; it became a vote clincher for a number of politicians who had opposed the company's plans. And when M&S first threatened to open in nearby Killarney, after suffering a second rejection for its large scale Tralee store, Labour councillor Terry O'Brien scoffed at the suggestion, pointing out that demand for M&S would be thin on the ground in a town where the "yanks just want Báinin jumpers and donkey cart rides".

Although he later claimed his comments were in jest, O'Brien failed in his campaign to win a Dáil seat.

Meanwhile M&S has followed through on its threat to locate its first Co Kerry store in Killarney rather than Tralee and next Easter the chain will unveil a 2,114sq m (22,755sq ft) outlet in the Deerpark retail scheme, where it will trade alongside Tesco, Argos, Homebase and the cut-price fashion giant, New Look.

Neil Hyslop, the head of M&S in Ireland, declined to comment on the Killarney deal, but a source close to the company confirmed terms had been agreed on the three-storey site.

Attention is now likely to return to M&S's plans for Tralee. Tempers have been on the boil there since the UK retailer was refused permission for its second planning application in which it committed to opening a Simply Food store in the town centre to offset concerns about the impact its 2,787sq m (30,000sq ft) unit would have on the town's high street.

The company needed a material contravention to operate in the Manor West scheme - not only because of the size and scale of the proposed outlet - but also because the planning conditions for the retail park allow councillors a say in what businesses can trade from the site.

And while the local paper claimed the second rejection of M&S precipitated "widespread disbelief and anger on the streets of Tralee", it was when Hyslop accused county councillors of reneging on a previous agreement to support the application that relations between both sides soured and the retailer embarked on its search for new premises in Killarney.

At the time local politicians vociferously denied there had been any such commitment, but a well-placed source close to M&S said the company had been given a "verbal assurance" that the second proposal would be given a "favourable hearing" after consumers reacted angrily to the initial rejection. The company has appealed Tralee Town Council's ruling to An Bord Pleanála and a decision is due at the end of November.

If the appeals board gives the green light to the store, the likelihood is that Co Kerry will have two large M&S outlets within a 45-minute drive of each other, as few doubt the company will throw away the opportunity to operate from a site it has always described as the "only suitable" location in Tralee.

However, if the decision from An Bord Pleanála is negative, a source close to M&S predicted the retailer would not want to revisit the dispute in the near future and claimed the whole experience had left a "bitter taste".

Agent DTZ Sherry FitzGerald is handling negotiations at the Deerpark retail scheme but was unavailable to comment on the deal.