FIVE GOVERNMENT departments are investigating the potential relocation of Galway port to Rossaveal in south Connemara as part of an integrated city development approach.
Assistant secretaries of the five departments held their first meeting on the issue in Dublin last week under the aegis of Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey.
The group also hopes to work with CIÉ, which has drawn up a controversial €1 billion plan for developing Ceannt station in the city centre.
Galway West TD Frank Fahey (FF), who helped to spearhead the initiative, says he believes some integrated planning is required in relation to the city's future.
The five departments are Transport, Agriculture and Fisheries, Environment, Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and Finance. Local authority officials and Údarás na Gaeltachta have also been contacted - the Gaeltacht development authority has a land bank in Rossaveal.
The fishing port, which also berths ferries serving the Aran islands, has been the subject of a series of delays over plans for its development. Some €39 million was approved last year to construct a new harbour on the Aran island of Inishmore. The inter-departmental group will examine Galway harbour's existing proposal under the current National Development Plan, and the feasibility of transforming Rossaveal into a deepwater port for shipping.
This would in turn depend on upgrading or developing road routes to the city, which would link into a proposed outer bypass still being considered by An Bord Pleanála.
Mr Fahey has long been an advocate of the Rossaveal option. It would free up the city port for recreational development - with consequent impact on waterfront residential property prices - at a time when it is preparing to host the first Irish stopover for the Volvo Ocean Yacht Race in 2009.
The 2009 world yacht race stopover in Galway from May 23rd to June 6th next year will be worth an estimated €43 million in revenue to the region, according to its organisers. They are making a bid to become permanent Irish host port for one of the world's biggest sporting events.
Some 140,000 visitors from Ireland and overseas are expected to visit, and a three-acre tented village in the port area will be the focus of shore activity during the stopover. This is contingent on relocation of existing oil storage facilities to the port's enterprise park.