Waterford interests don't care where it goes, as long as it links the city with Dublin. Carlow businesses say it must go through their county. Kilkenny is lobbying for its inclusion, but the favoured option may well be the N11 route on the east coast.
When the Government promised a dual carriageway or motorway linking Dublin and Waterford in the National Development Plan two months ago, it set off an intense flurry of speculation and canvassing which will end soon when a route is announced.
For motorists, improved roads mean reduced hassle and shorter journey times. For towns and cities, easy access to them can make the difference between prosperity and stagnation.
Major - and opposing - campaigns are under way in Carlow and Kilkenny to ensure they are part of the route to be taken by the new highway. Mr John McGuinness, a Kilkenny Fianna Fail TD who represents both counties, sought a meeting on the issue yesterday with the Taoiseach.
Mr McGuinness said there was no reason why both counties could not benefit from a motorway running to the west of Carlow. That, said the Carlow Chamber of Commerce chief executive, Mr Gerry Dunne, would be an "outright disaster" for Carlow.
Such a route, he said, would run through Co Laois and draw investment away from Carlow towards a county which already has the advantage of Objective 1 status and access to two national primary routes, Dublin-Limerick and Dublin-Cork.
The Carlow chamber sees an eastern by-pass of the town as a key element of a business strategy which will save Carlow from being a dormitory town for Dublin and give it a sustainable future of its own.
The Carlow plan is to link the new road with a business technology park which, with an improved telecommunications net work, could attract the first major inward investment to the area since the early 1970s. Carlow County Council is to seek a loan of up to £4 million to buy a site for the park, and negotiations with a land-owner are at an advanced stage.
Mr Jim McEntee, head of industrial services at Carlow Institute of Technology and president of the Chamber of Commerce, said Carlow had benefited from the general economic boom but remained overly reliant on a couple of major industries. The prospect of Braun or Lapple deciding one day to end their associations with the town scarcely bore contemplation.
"We need sustainable, longterm jobs to give Carlow the economic viability we seek," he said. "Last November we had just over 1,000 graduates from the Institute of Technology here, and only 7 per cent of them found employment in Carlow or its hinterland.
"Fifty-nine per cent of them found work in Dublin and its outreaches. This is a trend we're seeking to reverse. The only way of doing that is by attracting the high-tech and high-quality manufacturing and telecommunications industries to our doorstep. To do that we need a technology park and the infrastructure to sustain it."
Mr McGuinness pointed out that Kilkenny was also striving to attract investment, and has two "state of the art" factories awaiting occupation in an IDA park on the city's ring road.
"Twelve multinational companies have come to see the site, and one of the main issues that keeps coming up regarding the location is the state of the roads and access to ports and airports." He claimed it was clear the National Roads Authority favoured putting the motorway on the east coast, and it was unfortunate that Carlow and Kilkenny were not making a "strong, unified case" for the alternative option. Mr McGuinness and other Kilkenny public representatives held a meeting with the NRA on Monday.
Mr Dunne said NRA figures showed that 70 per cent of Dublin-Waterford traffic already used the N9 route through Carlow, favoured by the Carlow chamber. "To suggest that you reroute that 70 per cent of traffic down the east coast or by any other route is a bit crazy, regardless of what upgrading has been done on other routes."
The chamber supports some of the ideas put forward by a local parish priest, Father John Fingleton, who is campaigning for the completion of an inner route to relieve Carlow of its traffic congestion. They disagree with Father Fingleton and his supporters, however, that the relief road would replace the need for a by-pass of the town.
Mr McGuinness said a decision on the Dublin-Waterford route was imminent, which was why he was seeking an urgent meeting yesterday with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
The National Roads Authority was evaluating potential routes and will make a recommendation to the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Dempsey.
The major argument in favour of the N11 coastal route is that it is already developed to an advanced stage and is likely to be upgraded to dual-carriageway status in the future. Carlow and Kilkenny interests argue that this would be a shortsighted approach, leaving a large swathe of the region without proper access to ports and airports.