Infrastructure is county’s ‘weak link’

THE head of transport in the European Union described Clare’s infrastructure as “at best, patchy” and said that this is causing businesses in the county to miss opportunities.

British MEP Brian Simpson, chairman of the transport committee in the European Parliament and Socialist Group spokesperson for Transport and Tourism, made the comments after speaking at the National Tourism Conference in Ennistymon at the weekend.
Mr Simpson stressed the need for better infrastructure in the county and emphasised the need to develop rail links to and from Shannon Airport.
“The biggest obstacle to tourism development in Clare is its peripherality. It is the end of Europe or nearly the end of Europe and its infrastructure provision is, at best, patchy. I know it is improving but it needs to improve more. We need to develop Shannon more. We need to develop rail links into Shannon and into Clare more in order that you can get people here without having a horrendous four or five or six-hour drive and it is that that is its weak link if I can put it that way,” Mr Simpson stated.
“I think the lack of infrastructure is causing Clare to miss opportunities because what it does is act as a brake to people coming. Time is precious. I always joke when people say ‘I haven’t got time’. I say well ‘there were always only 24 hours in a day’, it is just that people don’t have the inclination, rather than they don’t have the time. What it means is that if people are going to spend three-quarters of a day of their hard-earned holiday driving to Clare from Dublin, then it is a bit of an off-putter and they would prefer to be able to fly directly into and out of Shannon,” he continued.
“You need to connect Shannon to the Irish infrastructure and by that, I don’t mean single track roads coming in to the airport. I mean rail and I mean reliable rail services. I mean motorway connections from Shannon to the rest of Ireland and, in particular, to Dublin, so that is what I think you need to do. When you think of it, and I know it is not popular, but it is a nonsense to fly Dublin to Shannon, a nonsense. What you need is a good rail link and that would negate the current need to fly Dublin to Shannon,” Mr Simpson added.
The UK North-West MEP also said he believed the future of the airport lies in region-to-region routes and increased numbers of charter flights and budget airlines.
“If you look at what has been done in some of the regional airports, Perpignan springs to mind in South-West France, how that has developed because of the low-cost carriers going in there from different points. I think there needs to be a kind of change of attitude that says ‘well OK, what is our role in Shannon? What is Shannon’s future role in the aviation sector not just of Ireland but of the rest of Europe?’ and that role is surely going to be regional to regional and yeah if you can get the odd capital city to Shannon as well, great, but I don’t think that makes that much difference. So I think Shannon’s role has got to be within Europe, regional airport to regional airport,” he said.
“If you are looking at setting up a route that is going to rely on business people day after day after day, it is not going to happen for Shannon because the people aren’t here but if you look at how do we attract tourists then we have got to look at how do we get the charter market involved? How do we get the low-fare airlines other than Ryanair to come into Shannon and deliver those services from around Europe,” he added. According to Mr Simpson, charter airlines will follow low-fare airlines into the airport, as was the case in Liverpool.
Asked how he sees the airport’s future, Mr Simpson pointed out that if increased regional services are achieved, then a tourism product must be in place to attract people back to the county.
The MEP added that he could see no reason, if the infrastructure was put in place, why Clare could not become as popular as the English Lake District.
“Ireland is probably the country in the European Union where the transformation from a poorer nation to a wealthier nation has been most marked. I know there have been recent problems with the financial crisis and so on and probably with the banks in Ireland but everyone has had that problem. I think what has happened is that the building blocks have been put in place so that when growth returns and the economy recovers, Ireland is well placed to be able to then pick up the baton again and run with it and I think that is why the awareness of tourism in Clare has been brilliant. It is tough at the moment, we all know that, it is tough in the Lake District at the moment, it is tough in parts of my region and my country. But what we have to do is to keep the focus on the quality of the product we offer, the difference of the product we offer, the uniqueness of this area and people will come back. If we can overcome the infrastructure problem than I think Clare will be as popular as the English Lake District,” he forecast.
The British MEP revealed that Clare is his favourite county and said he believed that the people in Clare were what made it stand out as a destination, along with its landscape.
“My wife believes that Clare people are the most friendly people you can wish to meet, that is the county’s strength, that is what Clare has got as well as this natural beauty and you can’t take that away so the potential, in my view, is great. I think with a proper infrastructure connecting in to the area, there is no reason why it cannot be as successful as the English Lake District,” Mr Simpson concluded.