Population may hit pre-Famine level by 2025

Ireland may return to a population of eight million people in the first quarter of this century - restoring the number of inhabitants to levels last seen just before the Great Famine in 1841.

Official figures from Northern Ireland and the Republic indicate rapid growth in population north and south of the Border, with both governments engaged in a "collaborative framework" to accommodate the extra population on an all-island basis.

The National Spatial Strategy in the Republic and the Regional Development Strategy in Northern Ireland are being used to plan for cross-Border developments, such as a proposed "Newry-Dundalk metropolis". Newry and Mourne District Council, Louth County Council and Dundalk Town Council have contributed to the plan to create in effect a new city straddling the Border.

Another development initiative is being taken in relation to what is being known as "the Northwest Gateway Initiative", driving trade and business in the region between Derry and Letterkenny.

Details of the moves were outlined by the Minister for the Environment Dick Roche when he opened a conference on Spatial Strategies on the Island of Ireland: Development of a Framework for Collaborative Action in Newry yesterday.

The conference was organised by the International Centre for Local and Regional Development (ICLRD) and was attended by officials from the Republic's Department of the Environment and the North's Department of Regional Development, the two departments charged with implementing the respective spatial strategies north and south.

Already InterTrade Ireland, one of the six North-South bodies set up under the Belfast Agreement, has produced a report on cross-border development.

Mr Roche told the conference that "projecting ahead, the island could have a population of about seven million in 2021 and indeed may once again return to a population of eight million, a level achieved just before the Great Famine in 1841."

He emphasised the decision by the Republic's Government to align the regional element of the next National Development Plan 2007-2013 with the National Spatial Strategy, which would put the spatial strategy "at the heart of capital infrastructure [spending] decisions over the next seven years".

He particularly praised the cross-Border planning study on "the formation of a Newry-Dundalk metropolis [which] is a logical and viable mechanism to realise the socio-economic potential on both sides of the Border. Together with the significant work ongoing in the Northwest Gateway Initiative, these strategies will help to demonstrate the practical benefits of closer co-operation between ourselves and our respective spatial strategies".