Reopening the Western Rail Corridor from Limerick to Sligo would cost €220 million, a fraction of the price of the LUAS, the ardfheis was told.
As delegates condemned the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, for being a "Minister for Transport for Dublin only", they backed a motion calling for the reopening of the rail corridor and the construction of spur lines to Shannon and Knock airports.
The party's regional spokesman, Mr Paul Connaughton, said that "if Ireland were a boat she's so lopsided she'd sink population-wise".
The "essence of good planning is to do the right thing for all areas at the right time. We've never been able to do it in this country," he said.
His daughter, Cllr Sinéad Connaughton, condemned the huge imbalance in regional development and said that when Fine Gael proposed the LUAS it was to cost €300 million but now it was already €600 million "and rising".
To loud applause, she said: "Imagine the roads that could have been built in the west of Ireland on the overrun costs alone", and from the funds that went into projects like the "ill-fated Bertie Bowl". Mr William Lavelle, president of Young Fine Gael, said the west "doesn't want special treatment, we want equal treatment".
