Department official says key 'gateway' issues are being addressed

Government policy is already addressing a number of key issues raised at the launch of the Atlantic Gateways forum, a senior planner at the Department of the Environment said yesterday.

Mr Finian Matthews, from the Department's Spatial Strategy unit, said the Government was moving on a number of issues, particularly access. He reminded the launch seminar that the Ennis bypass in Co Clare, the contract for which was signed yesterday, would bring the Galway region within about one hour's drive of Shannon Airport, the region's international gateway.

In addition, access along the Limerick to Nenagh, Co Tipperary, section of the N7 was being improved under the National Roads Programme while a new crossing of the Shannon, between Limerick and Co Clare, was also being put in place.

In terms of public transport, Mr Matthews said the first new suburban railway in recent decades was recently installed between Ennis and Limerick and according to initial reports was going very well. There were, he said, issues in relation to a number of north/ south routes, as well as access to the east, to Waterford, which were important to bring the port of Waterford into the region.

But he said the forum would also consider the wider picture of what makes enterprise work before considering what was needed to support that enterprise. "Is it simply a question of infrastructure or is there more to it then that?" he asked. Such were the issues which the forum would be considering over the next 12 months, he added.

The Atlantic Gateways forum includes representatives of Shannon Development, the southeast, southwest, mid-west and west regional authorities as well as the Department of the Environment and Local Government, the universities and the private sector. The forum is to report to Government through the Department. Its report is expected to take about a year.