Whatever way you look at it, Waterford is losing out economically and it is

At a meeting last week with the Minister for Transport and the Minister for the Environment, a delegation from the Waterford Chamber of Commerce highlighted Waterford's newly conferred "gateway" status was being undermined by inadequate road, rail and air access.

While positive noises were made regarding no rail line closures, development of rail freight and the priority Government attached to upgrading the road access, the urgent need for speedy delivery of projects was stressed.

To emphasise the point I explained the strategic importance of the driver employed by Bausch & Lomb to collect visiting senior executives from Dublin Airport and bring them to the firm's European headquarters in Waterford. Of the 1,700 people employed by Bausch, this person has a particular ability to distract and divert the attention of his VIP passengers after they part company with high- quality roads at Castledermot in Kildare and crawl the rest of the way on the worst stretch of inter urban road in the country.

His abilities have just about managed to deflect the attention of those people who have so heavily invested in the region away from asking: Why are we investing so much and employing so many in a place that has such dated and poor quality infrastructure?

I can answer that in terms of the highly trained workforce, the city's vibrancy, the region's beauty and so on but the infrastructure deficit in the south-east generally, and in Waterford particularly, bears examination and immediate redress.

At the meeting with Mr Brennan and Mr Cullen, we presented an economic report prepared by outside consultants that examined the costs and issues associated with poor quality road access. The key point contained in this report is that Waterford will continue to lose ground on other "gateway" cities without the provision of facilitating transport infrastructure.

The report identified significant costs to the regional and national economy through congestion costs, delayed ancillary developments and benefits, reduced foreign direct investment (FDI) and below-average income levels for the region. Specifically, the report showed that:

n The annual cost of congestion on the Dublin to Waterford route is estimated at €41.5 million. This calculation is based on the potential to save up to 43 minutes (NRA travel times) on each journey (average daily NRA traffic count of 12,400) on the Dublin to Waterford corridor.

n In 2001 the south-east region had 10,214 jobs supported by the IDA. This represents 7.4 per cent of the total of 138,009 for the State. Given that the south-east's population, based on the 2002 Census figures, is 10.8 per cent of the national total (432,540 of 3,917,336), it is clear the region is losing out on its share of FDI. Btween 1997 and 2000, the jobs totals for the region decreased by two jobs, while in the State as a whole the numbers rose by 32,607, or 30 per cent. For each year that the €832 million motorway project is not delivered, the region is, in effect, losing out on a return on that investment of €66.5 million - or 8 per cent of the total project cost.

Waterford had the lowest disposable income per capita of all the counties with "gateway" cities. The south-east, meanwhile, has the lowest income per capita of all the constituents that make up the southern and eastern region.

Waterford received just one quarter of 1 per cent (0.25 per cent) of the total National Development Plan outlay for the State last year. Of €8.2 billion spent, just €20.5 million was spent in Waterford.

On a per capita basis, each Irish person had more than €2,000 spent on them in 2002 via the plan, while Waterford's population had to make do with just €200.

These figures paint a picture of a region failing to achieve its full potential. There is no reason why Waterford cannot become a stronger regional economic centre attracting greater investment and creating more jobs. We have a young talented workforce, we have a port, we have a regional airport and we are strategically placed between Dublin and Cork - so why the untapped potential?

The region's business leaders are categoric in their arguments that transport infrastructure is the key to unlocking the Waterford "gateway".

Increased rather than reduced rail services, a dynamic regional airport and, most immediately, an upgraded road corridor with Dublin as identified in the NDP are the essential building blocks for the region's success.

Just as other regions have organised to argue their case for investment and development at a national level, the Waterford Chamber is confident that a new consensus and urgency is emerging in the south-east that will continue to put the case at a national level for our "gateway" status to be made a reality rather than remain as aspirational words in a well-intentioned report.

Frank O'Regan is vice-president Europe for Bausch & Lomb which employs 1,700 people in its European headquarters in Waterford and is also president of the Waterford Chamber of Commerce