The need for a university to be established in the southeast and for improved access to the region were cited as key development issues at a conference in Waterford yesterday.
The conference, entitled "Regional Tiger or Paper Tiger", organised by the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation (Ibec), heard that the perception of the southeast as a wealthy region was a misconception.
Fine Gael TD Phil Hogan, who addressed the conference, said the region was not performing well economically and was deprived in terms of transport access and educational services.
Looking at a number of socio-economic indicators, Mr Hogan said unemployment in the region was 5.4 per cent compared to a State-wide figure of 4.1 per cent.
He also pointed to Census 2002, which identified eight unemployment blackspots in the region which had unemployment rates of between 20.6 per cent and 26.5 per cent.
Representation in the top three socio-economic groups of employer/managers and lower professionals was lower than the rest of the State, while the southeast had a poor information technology infrastructure and a low skills base. To compound this, Mr Hogan added, the region had poor road, rail and air access.
However, Minister for Transport Martin Cullen, who also addressed the conference, promised that the building of the southern section of the Dublin-Waterford dual carriageway would be moved up the agenda, and construction would start in 2006.
He added that the National Roads Authority was aiming to start both phase one of the northern section of the M9 - a bypass of Carlow - and phase two - the southern section, Waterford city to Knocktopher - in 2006.
He also said the 187 new rail vehicles would permit a phased improvement of frequencies, with services every two hours on the route between Waterford and Dublin and at least four a day on the Rosslare route.
Urban bus services in the provincial cities would be upgraded and support provided for the further development of quality bus corridors and park-and-ride in Waterford. Regional and local bus services would also be upgraded.
John Farrell of Ibec told the conference that a university in the southeast was necessary to contribute to the region's development of the "knowledge economy".
A university had long been accepted as a critical factor for economic and regional development, he said. The proportion of people in the region with a third-level degree was just 6.53 per cent.