The chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce West Region has called for urgent action to bring road infrastructure in the west of Ireland up to the standard of other regions.
Gerard Kilcommins, who is also vice president of operations and general manager of US medical technology company Medtronic's Galway facility, said he made his comments with a view to protecting and growing existing investment and promoting the west of Ireland as a location for new investments by American multinationals.
Mr Kilcommins identified the critical infrastructure priorities as the N18/N17 (Shannon -Galway -Sligo), the Galway City Outer Bypass and the completion of the N6 (Galway-Dublin) project.
He said poor access was impacting the west's ability to do business and is jeopardising the ability to secure further investment.
"There are over 60 US companies located in the West Region . . . US industry has been pivotal to the success of the region and the challenge going forward is to create the environment which will allow existing companies to expand as well as attracting new investments to the region," Mr Kilcommins said.
"One influential senior executive, who visited recently from the corporate headquarters of one of our member companies commented on the 'nightmare journey' he undertook each time he had to visit and stated that our roads are "in the dark ages".