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Car assembly in Ireland

A missed opportunity

Letters to the Editor. Illustration: Paul Scott
The Irish Times - Letters to the Editor.
Sat Oct 12 2024 - 00:11

A chara, – The review by Neil Briscoe of Bob Montgomery’s book Motor Assembly in Ireland (“Story of car assembly in Ireland takes a curiously personal turn”, Motors, October 9th) demonstrates that vehicle assembly could in time have evolved to manufacture, including for export, had there been even a modicum of vision at political level.

In January 1947, Percy Reynolds, CIÉ's first chairman, reached an agreement with Leyland Motors of Lancashire under which CIÉ would set up a factory in Dublin to manufacture Leyland bus and truck chassis. This was intended to meet not only CIÉ's fleet requirements but also to sell Leyland vehicles to other bus operators and hauliers in the State.

Leading architect Michael Scott was commissioned to design the factory, which was built by G&T Crampton Ltd on CIÉ land at Inchicore and completed in 1949. Meanwhile, Reynolds had appointed a production manager and progressed plans for building three types of Leyland chassis – single and double-deck buses and medium-weight trucks.

However, as so often happens, politics intervened with disastrous results. The first Inter-Party government which took office in February 1948 effectively dismissed Reynolds as chairman of CIÉ and cancelled his visionary plans for modernising the country’s transport system. The Inchicore factory was handed over to the Office of Public Works as a workshop and stores.

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The agreement between CIÉ and Leyland Motors became a blueprint for similar Leyland ventures overseas, the first of which was Ashok Leyland in India in 1950. This company thrives today as India’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturer, part of the multinational Hinduja Group which has nine manufacturing plants in five countries. – Is mise,

CYRIL McINTYRE,

Celbridge,

Co Kildare.