A proposal has been put to the Government to use old railway routes still in public ownership to build a natural- gas pipeline to the north-west.
The railways are still intact, so it would cut down considerably on engineering work as the route is already levelled. It would also cut out the need to negotiate with land-owners.
The proposal has been put forward by a team including the former government minister Mr Ray MacSharry; an economics lecturer at Sligo Institute of Technology, Mr Felim O'Rourke; and a senior engineer with Sligo County Council, Mr Paul Canning.
Whether the north-west is to get any benefit from the Corrib gas find has become a highly charged issue, with both Fine Gael and the Independent, Ms Marian Harkin, making much of the lack of any clear Government policy.
The only commitment to date is that towns adjacent to the pipeline from the landing point in north Mayo to the national grid at Craughwell in Co Galway will get a supply. Towns named include Castlebar, Claremorris, Tuam and Athenry.
Bord Gais is assessing, on purely commercial grounds, the feasibility of putting in a spur to Ballina and on to Sligo. But if the gas is to go farther into the north-west, with the possibility of connecting with Northern Ireland, a Government decision would be required.
Mr O'Rourke said there were a number of advantages in building a pipeline along the disused railway from Claremorris to Collooney as it went through important local towns such as Kiltimagh, Swinford, Charlestown and Tubbercurry. "The major advantage is that all the levelling is already done, so from an engineering point of view it would be massively cheaper. And the route from Claremorris to Collooney is still in the ownership of Iarnrod Eireann," Mr O'Rourke said.
The two engineers in the project, Mr Canning and Mr Tom Kenny, the managing director of Kilcawley Construction in Sligo, say there are no technical or safety reasons why the old railway could not be used for a gas pipeline.
It would, of course, rule out the possibility of ever reopening the line as a working railway, but Mr O'Rourke says this is not an important consideration as it is not even close to being economically viable.
The old rail lines are still largely intact from Sligo to Enniskillen, Omagh, Strabane/Lifford and Letterkenny and therefore open up the possibility of making this a cross-Border project.
The gas pipeline proposal ties in with one put forward a number of years ago by Mr O'Rourke for the disused railway to be developed as a "linear park", a cross-Border tourism route for walking, cycling and horse-riding.
A £50,000 feasibility study was carried out into this project and it received the support of local authorities north and south of the Border.
It was found that the linear park could generate significant tourism income, and similar projects have proved very successful throughout Europe. Mr O'Rourke believes the two projects could complement each other perfectly.
Along with Mr MacSharry, he recently gave a report on the proposal to the Taoiseach. For the project to progress a policy decision is needed from Government, he says.