Instead of building a new motorway to Portlaoise, provide Limerick with a fourth bridge and a rail link to Shannon Airport, writes James Nix.
In March 2000, Aer Rianta finished work on a €35-million terminal building at Shannon Airport. With the new terminal, Shannon can now cater for five million passengers per annum - double the airport's current patronage of 2.35 million, with room to spare.
Meanwhile, facilities at Cork Airport are stretched. With a throughput of 1.9 million passengers in 2002, there are plans for a new terminal costing €140 million. Dublin Airport is also operating at capacity (15 million passengers per annum) despite the recent completion of its main terminal extension.
In other words, only Shannon Airport has idle capacity. It makes sense, therefore, to direct growth towards Shannon, in turn taking pressure off Dublin and Cork. Although Aer Rianta is attempting to grow business at Shannon, traffic fell 2 per cent in 2002.
Only two airports in the Republic cater for both inter-continental and European flights - Dublin and Shannon. Developing fast land connections from Cork to Shannon would give Munster a wider set of flights, with more North American and east European destinations in particular. Similarly, linking Galway and Waterford to Shannon with proper road and rail connections results in a broader range of services than upgrading regional airports outside both cities.
Two projects are instrumental in maximising Shannon. The first is a new crossing of the River Shannon at Limerick to allow traffic bypass the city. The second is a 10km rail link to Shannon Airport. Though the costs of both projects are modest, they are down the list of Government priorities.
Currently topping the list is the new motorway from Limerick to Portlaoise - beside the existing N7. However, with Nenagh and Roscrea already bypassed, the journey time gain of a new motorway would be minimal. Moreover, certainty as to the length of time a journey takes - the most important factor in the modern logistics chain - has already been achieved: it takes an hour and a quarter to drive from Portlaoise to Co Limerick.
Traffic jams occur at Limerick city - precisely the problem the fourth crossing of the Shannon is designed to address. To rank a Portlaoise to Limerick motorway ahead of a new Shannon crossing exposes the mismatch between the aims of the National Development Plan and its likely consequences.
The National Development Plan seeks to foster inter-regional reliance. The upshot of the current scheme of priorities would be a slightly faster journey time from the outskirts of Limerick to the outskirts of Dublin.
Greater traffic jams at each end of the route would accompany this result, coupled perhaps - and this highlights the perverse nature of the project - with higher demand to use Dublin facilities over airports and ports in Munster and south Leinster.
Thankfully the mid-term review of the National Development Plan offers an opportunity to adapt current priorities. In the immediate term, Shannon Airport might abate pressure on Cork and Dublin by recasting its marketing strategy. To date, Aer Rianta has employed somewhat generic advertising in its promotional efforts, such as "Fly Shannon" or "Shannon is easier".
Although Shannon is roughly halfway between Killarney and Connemara, there is still little or no promotion of "arrive and drive" holidays. The idea here is to tap into the market for short-stay breaks by promoting car hire as a way to see the west of Ireland.
Connemara-bound tourists, for example, could be directed via the Cliffs of Moher and Lisdoonvarna (rather than the truck-laden N18 route which runs Ennis to Galway). Bunratty, Limerick and Listowel might be suggested calls en route to Kerry.
There has also been no focus on a key issue for most airport users - car-parking charges. Aer Rianta charges €26 for a week's parking at Shannon Airport compared with €43 at Dublin Airport: in other words, there is no principle by which the company levies the same parking charges on all car-users.
So why not cut long-stay parking charges at Shannon to €1 per day from October to May?
While Christmas and Easter would have to be excluded from this initiative, a little marketing would ensure better patronage at times the airport is particularly underused.
Likewise, Aer Rianta's promotion of bus services to Shannon needs to keep pace with developments. Citylink's Galway-Shannon service, introduced in early June, is doing well. Yet the Shannon Airport website - www.shannon-airport.ie - does not acknowledge the existence of the service when advising passengers how to get to Shannon by bus.
Shannon became the flagship of regional policy during the Lemass era. Over the last 10 years this success has been thrown into jeopardy.
The National Spatial Strategy was published earlier this year and the process of piecing regional policy back together again must begin. A bustling international airport, well linked to Cork, Limerick and Galway, offers a point of departure. Wider transport and land-use considerations need to be brought into line.
James Nix is pursuing an MPhil in transport studies at the Dublin Institute of Technology and is in final year at King's Inns. james.nix@dit.ie