Midlands Gateway, also known as ''Lake-Counties Gateway'', is an area centered between the Irish airports, of

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

, Shannon, and Knock. The principle urban centres in the Midlands Gateway include

Athlone Athlone (; ) is a town on the border of County Roscommon and County Westmeath, Ireland. It is located on the River Shannon near the southern shore of Lough Ree. It is the second most populous town in the Midlands Region with a population of ...

Tullamore Tullamore (; ) is the county town of County Offaly in Ireland. It is on the Grand Canal, in the middle of the county, and is the fourth most populous town in the midlands region with 14,607 inhabitants at the 2016 census. The town retained ...

and

Mullingar Mullingar ( ; ) is the county town of County Westmeath in Ireland. It is the third most populous town in the Midland Region, with a population of 20,928 in the 2016 census. The Counties of Meath and Westmeath Act 1543 proclaimed Westmea ...

. The counties covered in the plan include

County Offaly County Offaly (; ga, Contae Uíbh Fhailí) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Uí Failghe. It was formerly known as King's County, in hon ...

and

County Westmeath "Noble above nobility" , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Westmeath.svg , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Ireland , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = , subdivis ...

Objective

The strategy is designed to create an integrated linked Gateway comprising

and

together with the other surrounding towns in the region with the objective of developing an "internationally competitive Gateway". The

Irish government The Government of Ireland ( ga, Rialtas na hÉireann) is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in Ireland. The Constitution of Ireland vests executive authority in a government which is headed by the , the head of government. The gover ...

strategy, combined with the associated councils has been formulated with the intention of ensuring the availability of choice in residential, retail, leisure and tourist facilities based on the principles of quality of life and environmental enhancement.

Background

The background to the Midlands Gateway project is the Irish government’s National Spatial Strategy, which was launched in 2002 with the objective of engendering a "more balanced approach to regional development across the State". The purpose of this strategic framework is to focus more directly on the role of the Midlands Gateway within this strategy in acting as the economic driving force for the development of the Midlands region.

Goals

In order to ensure that the vision for the Midlands Gateway is achieved, a number of partners were identified as of importance to the Midlands gateways success. These included a number of Government departments, the Industrial Development Authority (Ireland),

National Roads Authority The National Roads Authority (NRA) ( ga, An tÚdarás um Bóithre Náisiúnta) was a state body in Ireland, responsible for the national road network. The NRA was established as part of the Roads Act 1993 and commenced operations on 23 December ...

NRA, Higher Education Authority (HEA), Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and local agencies. Currently, the Gateway does not have direct access to complete Inter-Urban Motorways/Dual-Carriageways, both internally and externally. The Gateway, and in particular the three principal Gateway towns of

and

, is served by main line inter-urban rail and bus networks, with direct access to urban centres of

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a city in the West of Ireland, in the province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay, and is the sixth most populous city ...

and

Sligo Sligo ( ; ga, Sligeach , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of approximately 20,000 in 2016, it is the List of urban areas ...

, and limited local bus services. However, there is poor rail connection within the gateway. In addition, the Gateway is not directly served by an inland port and, of critical importance, is not currently within one hour drive time of an international airport. There is poor road linkage between the Gateways towns, with limited rail and bus service links. If developed as proposed, the road development proposals announced in the Transport 21 Government Proposal (November 2005) would mean that the Midlands Gateway would attain improved access to Galway, Dublin and Sligo, and therefore also to ports and airports. The plan also identified a need to "considerably improve the road infrastructure within and adjacent to the Gateway", as the "existing status is significantly insufficient".

Report

A report by Indecon, concluded that the "scale of the economic challenges facing the Midlands Gateway is very large". The analysis in the Strategic development Framework for the Midlands Gateway report Strategic development Framework for the Midlands Gateway report highlighted the following challenges: * The absence of a critical mass of population, employment and infrastructure in the Gateway; * The extremely low levels of value-added and productivity in the existing manufacturing base in the region, which leaves the Gateway vulnerable to significant further job losses; * The persistence of socio-economic barriers, including noticeably higher unemployment, lower educational attainment, and social deprivation/exclusion in certain areas in the Midlands counties; * The failure of the region to capture a higher share of tourism activity and to develop higher value tourism product areas; and * The absence of a strong, identifiable ‘brand’ for the Midlands Gateway, which gives the Gateway and surrounding region strong visibility as an attractive location for live and work. * The reporters Simpson and Associates, strongly believe that unless the strategies recommended in this report are implemented, the potential for the area to develop as a significant Gateway is limited and this, like all the other elements of the (original National Spatial Strategy), now called the

National Development Plan National Development Plan (NDP, ga, Plean Forbartha Náisiúnta) was the title given by the Irish Government to a scheme of organised large-scale expenditure on (mainly) national infrastructure. The first five-year plan ran from 1988 to 1993, ...

,Irish National Development Plan would remain aspirational. * If, however, the recommendations in this report are implemented, we believe there is a real opportunity for significant progress to be made.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Midlands Gateway
(archived 2008)
Finance Ministers Mr. Brian Cowen's Speech 2 March 2007
(archived 2011)
Strategic Development Framework For The MIDLANDS GATEWAY
(archived 2007) Rail transport in Ireland Athlone Mullingar Transport in County Westmeath Transport in County Offaly Economy of the Republic of Ireland