Key business figures and development agencies are agreed on where investment needs to be made in the west of Ireland. Tim O'Brien asks them to name the roads and railways which need to be built now.
At its annual conference in Galway at the weekend, the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) became the latest body to point to the potential for economic development in the west of Ireland, counterbalancing the congestion of the east.
The views of the CIF echo those of key business and development agencies, and the National Development Plan. They are not in themselves a surprise. The surprise is in the slow pace of implementation of the infrastructural improvements in the west.
It is hard to imagine that electricity supplies could still be a barrier to industrial development in the Republic, but in Co Mayo projects which are available now may have to be turned away.
For Shannon Airport too, facing a possible end to its "dual gateway" status, road and rail access to Galway, Limerick and Cork is crucial but improvements are patchy or long overdue.
The CIF identified the potential for a western economic corridor with Cork, Limerick and Galway linked by motorway, the completion of ring roads around Limerick and Galway and improvements to the Shannon/Galway road.
At least five development agencies, including Údarás na Gaeltachta, Shannon Development, the Western Development Commission, the BMW (Border Midlands West) Regional Assembly, and the Council for the West, have made similar comments. So too have the Chamber of Commerce of Ireland and county enterprise boards. Yet National Development Plan spending in the region is currently running at about half its projected spending.
The key issues are road, rail and air access and transportation, energy and communications. The Industrial Development Agency has acknowledged the energy deficiencies in Mayo. The ESB has commented that it would be happy to upgrade the network, should the Government give it the go-ahead.
The Government has produced a National Spatial Strategy which sees the potential for development of the region and now the CIF has added its name to those - including more than 200 companies in the Atlantic Technology Corridor grouping - which see the potential for an economic counterbalance to the east coast based on the western seaboard.
The question for Government is why have infrastructural improvements in the west been allowed to fall so far behind? It is hard to avoid the contention of Dr Chris Coughlan, of the Atlantic Technology Corridor group, that discrimination is at play.
As the CIF commented, there is an urgent need for a national political consensus for more balance in regional development. The Government should take on board the overwhelming consensus coming from business community and development agencies in the regional centres. The time is right to turn the concept of the western economic corridor into a reality.
In the National Development Plan, the Government could guarantee the necessary investment and tap the huge technological potential offered, and allow the region to compete on the global stage. The move would not detract from the business or income of the east coast, indeed it most probably would ease congestion there. It requires only a fair share of the current infrastructural roll-out.
While Iarnród Éireann waits for demand to guarantee a return on capital investment, business leaders point out that if the ESB had taken that view with rural electrification there would still be large areas of the Republic in darkness. The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, has spoken of the need to pro-actively invest in infrastructure: now is the time to carry it through.