The Government needs to significantly increase spending on roads, rail and other infrastructure or a large number of exporting firms could go out of business, the Irish Exporters' Association (IEA) warned yesterday.

The IEA said at least €10 billion needs to be spent on the country's roads over the next five years, in addition to significant investment in the rail network, the ports and airport facilities if the Republic is to retain its position as a business destination.

The organisation said Baldonnel airport should be used for freight, instead of Dublin Airport, which was heavily congested.

"Our infrastructure here in Ireland is one of the worst in Europe and this is harming our exporters," Don Moore, president of the IEA, said at the launch of the group's submission to the Government's consultation on the second National Development Plan (NDP). He went on to criticise the Government's record during the first NDP, which concludes this year, saying its failure to make adequate investment had led to the loss of more than 36,000 manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2006.

Mr Moore also said "something must be done" to ensure spending on research and development, which has fallen from 0.9 per cent of GDP in 1998 to 0.77 per cent in 2004, increases. He urged the Government to provide incentives to encourage investment in this area.

"We see this proposed NDP 2 (which will run to 2013) as an opportunity to address the problems facing our exporters," said Mr Moore. "We are already a high-cost location and don't want to add to that the fact that we have an appalling infrastructure. We are skating on very thin ice."

The deadline for submissions passed earlier this month, but a spokeswoman for the Department of Finance said it is still accepting documents.

In its submission, the IEA calls on the Government to open up Baldonnel airport to cater for the needs of exporters, which are not being met by Dublin Airport. Mr Moore also criticised the Government's failure to expand the State's port and road capacity, and urged the opening up of the rail system to competition. "The demands being placed on infrastructure mean that the problems are worsening and are not going to get better," he said.

In addition, Mr Moore also spoke of the need to address the country's energy policy. "Energy security is going to be one of the big issues going forward," he said. "We have no storage of gas here and we burn it as it comes through the pipeline. It's unbelievable that this has not been addressed to date."

He said something needs to be done to prevent future shortages should political disputes, such as those seen recently between Russia and the Ukraine, harm supplies. This in turn should help reduce energy costs, which rose 11 per cent last year.

Another issue that must be addressed is the slow rollout of broadband across the country, the IEA said.