Bishop greets proposal for new city in the west

The Bishop of Achonry, Dr Tom Flynn, has said he is "very much in favour" of a proposal for a new city in the west of Ireland. It would be "tremendous for the country as a whole. It would give another centre to the country and certainly to the west," he said.

One of those behind the proposal, Mr William Thomas, a Galway businessman, said he had received a letter from the President, Mrs McAleese, wishing them luck with the proposal, and the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, was enthusiastic about the idea, he said.

Also listed among supporters are the Minister of State for Science, Technology and Commerce, Mr Noel Treacy; Mr John Higgins, general secretary of the Progressive Democrats; and the Fine Gael senator, Mr John Connor. He said it was "absolutely appropriate to the new and rapidly changing needs of this country".

Prepared by Mr Thomas and a Galway engineer, Mr John McMyler, the proposal suggests the city be located in east Mayo, "ideally within 10 miles of Knock International Airport".

It would cover 30 square miles, with an initial population of 100,000 and designed for occupation by 250,000 people within 20 years.

"Housing will be new, spatial, detached, in an infrastructured surbia, with churches, community centres, shops, and other recreational facilities," the proposal said. "Wide boulevards and avenues will afford free movement of traffic and well-designed public transport and underground car-parking facilities will allow free access at all times."

It should be the base for at least three Government departments, possibly including the Departments of the Environment, Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Education and Science, and be the location for a "University of Connacht" or "National Academy of Sciences" or both, and a hospital.

The proposers also call for the creation of a "minister for the west" post at Cabinet, which would oversee the development of the new city.

Dr Flynn referred to a recent Economic and Social Research Institute report which said Dublin's commuter belt now extended to Dundalk in the north, Gorey in the south, west to Mullingar, and drawing people away from the rest of the country.

Dublin and other cities could only expand inland because of the sea, he said, while all were medieval in origin and had major gridlock problems which were being added to daily by the huge increase in car sales.

"It would be a great idea if a city could be designed for modern needs, starting from scratch," he said.

The location suggested for the city, which is in Dr Flynn's diocese, was one where land was cheap and of suitable quality for a city. The hills were mainly limestone, he said.

Senator Connor said the area "has the lowest population density per square kilometre in all of Europe . . . where there is a major international airport and where there has been a recent major natural-resource find nearby, the discovery of the natural gas field offshore Co Mayo."

In terms of regional development this country was "on a suicide course," he said.

Dublin was now the most congested and poorly serviced major population centre in the developed world. It was "a transport disaster" where it took longer to commute to and from work than in any city in Europe or North America.

Meanwhile, Government thinking was "still rooted in attempting to correct the totally skewed regional development pattern by pouring investment into old medieval cities like Galway, Limerick, and Waterford, all of which in their own way were almost as bad as Dublin", he said.