A vision of a high-technology "corridor" with high-speed rail, motorway and air links between Dublin and Belfast was outlined at a conference in Newry, Co Down, yesterday.
Titled the "Dublin-Belfast Economic Corridor 2025", the conference assessed opportunities for developing a "mega-city" which, it was claimed, could be based on both Irish cities and linked by a sea bridge or tunnel to Glasgow or Edinburgh in Scotland.
A map indicating development opportunities - including an all-Ireland stadium at Newry, an all-Ireland port at Loughsinny, and a high-speed railway line from Dublin to Belfast via Navan and Drogheda - was produced by the conference hosts, the Urban Institute, a planning body based at University College, Dublin.
It was prepared by a number of academics, including Mr Hendrick van der Kamp of the Dublin Institute of Technology, to show "what is possible", said Mr van der Kamp.
It also showed an expanded Dublin Airport with a second terminal, a second runway and an "investment node" at its western end. The map indicated improved connections to Belfast International Airport, including a motorway connecting it to Larne, Co Antrim, and Newry, crossing the M1 and M2 routes. Development centres were suggested at Dundalk/Newry and Drogheda.
While much of the institute's plan for the "mega-city" was notional, Mr Niall Cussen of the Republic's Department of the Environment said the concept of a Dublin-Belfast "economic corridor" had been gaining increasing acceptance.
It had been officially recognised in the Fingal Development Plan of 1998 and the Meath Development Plan 2000. And by the time the State had produced the National Spatial Strategy, and the North its own regional development strategy, last year, the corridor was a critical influencing factor. Dr Brian Callanan, of Shannon Development, reminded the conference of development in the west of Ireland, including the "Atlantic technopolis", a string of high-quality technology firms along the western seaboard from Galway through Limerick to Cork.
He warned that the east and west "must not fall into competition with each other" and he asked the conference to consider how the Dublin-Belfast corridor could energise and complement the west, and vice versa.
Ms Mary Moylan, assistant secretary general of the Department of the Environment, described Dr Callanan's concerns as a "key issue for policymakers North and South".
"While the reality is that the Dublin-Belfast economic corridor is the centre of our competitiveness", there were, she said, serious problems of congestion in the east. She agreed with Dr Callanan that the State should develop the benefits of the Atlantic Park and the Galway/Limerick/Shannon and Shannon/Cork regions.
The concept of a "digital island" was put forward by Mr Aidan Gough, policy director of InterTradeIreland, a cross-Border body set up to foster e-trade. However, while there were benefits from operating on an all-island basis, there were barriers, too.
"For example, here in Newry my mobile phone may change service providers up to 10 times a day and the current roaming charges look like they were designed by Monty Python," he said.
He said all landlines in the North could be accessed from Britain by dialling the prefix 028, while the same landlines could be accessed from the Republic by dialling 048. "Why could they not be accessed by the same number?" He suggested an all-Ireland public procurement portal to capitalise on some €14 billion worth of public procurement projects available annually in both jurisdictions.
