THERESA DALY SPHERE OF INFLUENCE: THE HOME

YOU could be forgiven for imagining the project manager for IKEA Ireland as a burly Swede in a blue pin-striped suit and hard yellow hat.

Softly spoken, with a trace of her native Kerry accent still lingering, and informally dressed in jeans, boots and chiffon wrap dress, Theresa Daly is the woman who will challenge preconceptions . . . not least the one that says a mega-furniture store in Ballymun is the last thing our crammed M50, and cramped homes, need.

With direct responsibility for planning, the impression is that Daly has overcome plenty of obstacles elsewhere in her rise through the global chain that prides itself on 'democratic design'.

Since joining the company 13 years ago in Vienna, as financial controller for Eastern Europe, Listowel-born Daly has since progressed . . . or 'developed' as she puts it . . . through IKEA's network of 34 stores worldwide, gaining an expertise on planning the sort of massive spaces required by the globe's biggest furniture retailer, and retaining a fierce loyalty to the company which hires 'co-workers' rather than employees.

Last year, Daly moved to live in Dublin, chiefly to be at the heart of the planning action here. Her new home is 'a modest 1930s semi'. Internal walls were promptly broken down to create the open-plan living space that, like so much of modern design, probably originated in Sweden.

She is equally undaunted by the much bigger task of breaking down the final walls of objection to the controversial 30,000 sq m Ballymun store.