Future transatlantic flights into Shannon were "a critical business need" and one which must now be addressed by a Shannon airport marketing plan, according to the chairman of an alliance of almost 300 technology companies in the west.
Addressing a conference yesterday on local economic development in Co Clare, Dick Meaney said the phasing out of the Shannon stopover should provide the time for the airport to get its marketing strategy in place but he added that access to the United States was essential to the many US multinationals and high-technology companies in the area.
Mr Meaney, who is also vice- president of Analogue Devices, based in Limerick, said the gap in technology infrastructure, such as broadband telecommunications, between the region and Dublin was closing.
He agreed with the director of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Marion Coy, who said one of the most important things the region now required was "a bloody good road from Galway to Limerick".
Mr Meaney revealed that the alliance of companies known as the Atlantic technology corridor was attempting to create a recognised "knowledge economy cluster" on the west coast, which would be competing globally alongside Singapore, Bangalore and Silicon Valley in California.
There was, he said, good co- operation between the high-technology industries and the universities which had potential for a cluster of companies co-operating in areas such as "biomedical informatics".
The combination of information technology and medical devices held tremendous potential, he said. An international conference being planned for 2006 or early 2007 would bolster the region's business, he said.
Ms Coy said Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology had evolved a speciality in the area of marine knowledge, in co-operation with industry. The institute had a number of postgraduate students studying the transportation of lobsters which, she said, was big business.
She added: "Given first choice here in the morning, from the point of view of higher education and business in this region, the thing that would most greatly aid my development in Galway is to build a bloody decent road between Galway and Shannon.
It was "almost comical for people to think about doing business in this part of the world when that is the level of infrastructure that you are talking about".
The president of the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland, which organised the conference, said too many decisions were being made without regard to the National Spatial Strategy.
Robin O'Sullivan said many decisions, such as the Government's decentralisation plan, seemed to fly in the face of the goals set out in the strategy.
