Major transportation schemes currently being planned for Dublin will address existing shortages instead of providing extra capacity to meet further growth in the city, Dublin Chamber of Commerce said yesterday.

In an economic profile of the capital, Dublin into 2000, the chamber noted that labour shortages were becoming "increasingly acute", especially in the IT, tourism, leisure and communications sectors.

Transport shortages continued to top the agenda in the city, the chamber said. The existing blueprint for transport in the city, the 1994 report of the Dublin Transportation Initiative, was redundant, because its growth projections had already been exceeded.

The chamber's director of economic policy, Mr Declan Martin, warned that the current high rate of growth in the city could not be maintained without a co-ordinated approach to delivering aspects of the National Development Plan. This was particularly relevant in transport, infrastructure and training, he said.

"We have the opportunity to set ourselves on a course for continuing growth. We must ensure that the decisions we make now are the right ones, not just for the present needs, but to enable us to anticipate likely needs for the future," said Mr Martin.