{"id":535293,"date":"2026-07-06T06:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T06:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/535293\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T06:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T06:45:08","slug":"supermacs-pat-mcdonagh-if-i-were-25-id-be-on-a-flight-to-sydney-or-new-york-tomorrow-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/535293\/","title":{"rendered":"Supermac\u2019s Pat McDonagh: \u2018If I were 25, I\u2019d be on a flight to Sydney or New York tomorrow\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sitting in the meeting room of the new Banner Plaza outside Ennis, Co Clare<\/a>, with a large portrait of the late Chuck Feeney<\/a> behind him, Supermac\u2019s owner Pat McDonagh lets out a big laugh when asked if he plans to follow in the footsteps of the US philanthropist he admires.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, you know, you never say \u2018never\u2019,\u201d McDonagh tells The Irish Times.<\/p>\n

McDonagh, who named a conference centre in Limerick\u2019s<\/a> Castletroy Park Hotel after Feeney last year, may not have the same $8 billion (\u20ac7 billion) fortune to give away, but has built a tidy money-making empire.<\/p>\n

The restaurants, service stations and hotel group, which he began with one shop in Ballinasloe, Co Galway<\/a>, in 1978, now has close to \u20ac300 million in assets. <\/p>\n

The latest group accounts show it made \u20ac314 million in sales and recorded after-tax profits of \u20ac39.4 million in 2024. McDonagh says sales rose to around \u20ac375 million last year.<\/p>\n

At the end of 2024, it was also sitting on retained earnings of \u20ac285.9 million and had \u20ac139.6 million of cash on its books.<\/p>\n

The latest venue opened by the group is the Banner Plaza outside Ennis. It\u2019s the 11th service station McDonagh has opened in Ireland. But he says it may be the last.<\/p>\n

He sees better opportunities to grow the motorway services business in the UK and continental Europe than in Ireland and feels it may be easier.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking for permission in Ballygally in Northern Ireland<\/a> because we think it might be easier to get there than here. That would be our first motorway services up there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tough environment<\/p>\n

McDonagh feels the need to look abroad due to the costs he incurred in Ennis. He counts his scars from the experience through 27 separate points in a planning timeline he has printed out and brought with him to the interview.<\/p>\n

The timeline begins with the first planning application in 2014 and includes setbacks such as appeals to council decisions, several withdrawn applications by McDonagh and two judicial reviews. <\/p>\n

One of those legal cases is still ongoing and relates to a Friends of the Irish Environment challenge against Uisce \u00c9ireann<\/a> over the connection of the facility to the Clareabbey Wastewater Treatment Plant<\/a>, which the environmental group says is \u201calready overloaded\u201d. <\/p>\n

The service station, on which construction started in early 2025, was able to open last November without a connection because McDonagh\u2019s company pays \u20ac3,000 a week for a temporary wastewater plant on site.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s about \u20ac80,000 since November and we\u2019re told it could be next May when the judicial review is resolved. On top of that Uisce \u00c9ireann will want a connection fee of \u20ac156,000,\u201d McDonagh says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this was an American company trying to set up in Ireland, I wonder wouldn\u2019t it have been waiting 14 years to get open. The cost of getting planning permission was \u20ac2 million, development costs were more than \u20ac20 million. If we had done that 10 years ago, it would have been half the price.\u201d<\/p>\n

Due to its healthy finances, McDonagh\u2019s group can absorb the costs and few will feel sorry for the businessman making \u20ac40 million profit a year. <\/p>\n

McDonagh says he raises these issues because he can\u2019t see how new entrepreneurs, with no capital, can start a company.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re lucky enough we can afford to these costs. If I were starting off today, no bank would give me \u20ac2 million of a loan to get planning permission. So if I were 25, I\u2019d be on a flight to Sydney or New York or Canada tomorrow morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing costs<\/p>\n

Patchwork solutions such as the temporary wastewater plant in Ennis are becoming normal across the group, McDonagh says. He also says the need to help staff with accommodation is another cost that has become a necessity. <\/p>\n

Last year, it disclosed payments of \u20ac7 million annually on staff housing, which included costs for buying and renting homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still buying a few properties here and there. It depends on when we need them. We bought and rented in Ennis for staff of the new plaza,\u201d McDonagh says. <\/p>\n

He adds the costs of staff accommodation will be in excess of \u20ac5 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a necessity going forward and we have at least 200 beds for staff now, with 12 of them above our O\u2019Connell Street location in Dublin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to grow that because if you can provide accommodation it eases their fear of coming to Ireland. Ireland has a reputation of accommodation being expensive and not available. But it\u2019s not necessarily all non-national staff \u2013 we have Irish staff in some of them as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

No exact financial value has been assigned to these homes bought by McDonagh\u2019s group, but at the end of 2024 Supermac\u2019s (Holdings) Limited owned \u20ac23.2 million of investment properties, which was \u20ac10 million more than five years previously.<\/p>\n

Included in that \u20ac23.2 million tally are non-residential properties, including the derelict Printer\u2019s Yard property in New Ross, Co Wexford<\/a>. In recent weeks, T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris announced plans to empower the Revenue Commissioners to impose 7 per cent levies<\/a> on derelict properties. <\/p>\n

McDonagh says the Government needs to \u201cask the question why are the properties derelict\u201d as opposed to focusing solely fining people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a lot of cases, buildings are derelict because of local government policies. Most towns around the country have accessibility issues because of restrictions on parking and the cost of parking, making it difficult for the customer to get into the town.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says that with disposable income tight, people make the \u201cno-brainer\u201d decision to go to a retail park or shopping centre instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cTown shops are closing in smaller towns and that\u2019s why they\u2019re becoming derelict. It isn\u2019t viable to invest in it if the people aren\u2019t there or if the business isn\u2019t there. <\/p>\n

\u201cBarbers, vape shops, nail bars, the high-margin businesses, are the only ones that can afford to open on high streets. Other traditional shops can\u2019t, which is sad to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

No fun<\/p>\n

Lengthy planning procedures, trips to the courts over insurance claims and costly workarounds to keep the lights on have led McDonagh to a belief he repeats many times during the interview. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe fun is going out of business. I see smaller businesses just throwing in the towel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what he previously found fun about business, he can\u2019t quite pinpoint what he used to love, but feels it\u2019s not the same any more.<\/p>\n

Would the lack of fun make the 73-year-old consider planning his exit from the group? <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll tell you about that in a few years\u2019 time,\u201d he says with a grin.<\/p>\n

In 2024, McDonagh and his wife Una, who co-own Supermac\u2019s, received a \u20ac2 million contribution to their pension pot from the group on top of their combined \u20ac150,000 directors\u2019 fee. <\/p>\n

It was the largest payout they have taken from the group in more than a decade. Is this the groundwork being prepared for a succession plan? Is there someone working in the group who could pick up McDonagh\u2019s mantle?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll tell you, with all due respects, even if I had, I wouldn\u2019t tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sitting in the meeting room of the new Banner Plaza outside Ennis, Co Clare, with a large portrait…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,227546,15469,4500,3662,61,60,1396,2443,105060,4674,21023,776,9270],"class_list":["post-535293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-chuck-feeney","tag-clare","tag-galway","tag-housing-crisis","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-limerick","tag-northern-ireland","tag-pat-mcdonagh","tag-retail","tag-supermacs","tag-uisce-eireann","tag-wexford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}