The most important infrastructure project for Counties Clare and Limerick that nobody is talking about

Ireland’s population is expected to grow by around one million people by 2040. On current trends, much of that growth, together with the economic activity it brings, will be concentrated in Dublin, Leinster and Cork. An already unbalanced country will become more so. Dublin’s expansion will be further enabled by the proposed pipeline from the River Shannon, helping the wider Dublin region accommodate a population approaching two million.

All going well, Clare and Limerick will continue to dominate hurling, but unless we get our act together in the Mid-West the region’s relative importance as an economic engine for the country is likely to diminish. But this does not have to be the case. The single most important transport project for correcting that trajectory, in my view, is a railway to Shannon Airport. I believe this project matters more than any motorway or other road project if we do not want to be left behind. With a few exceptions, however, politicians at local and national level have remained mute, agnostic or unenthusiastic about it.

The prevailing narrative is that the region lacks the population or population density to justify a railway to Shannon Airport. We are told by senior leaders and decision-makers that it can happen when Limerick City and the Mid-West have grown. This, of course, gets the relationship between transport and development backwards. Railways should shape growth every bit as much as they can be a response to it.

It should be noted that Ireland’s recent growth has been remarkable. Between 2014 and 2024, our population increased by 15%, the third-highest rate in the European Union. To put some numbers on it the increase was 98,700 in the year to April 2024 and by a further 78,300 the following year, while Modified Domestic Demand, the most useful measure of underlying domestic activity, grew by 4.9% in 2025. Ireland’s population has almost doubled since its low point in 1961 and it is becoming increasingly urban.

Yet our approach to infrastructure has been slow to adjust. One reason may be that, for much of the State’s history, planning and decision making took place against a backdrop of emigration, economic weakness and slow population growth. That is no longer the country we live in. Infrastructure must now be planned for sustained and rapid growth and, crucially, it must be delivered early enough to shape it rather than as a reaction to it.

This is why a railway to Shannon is so important. It would create a high-capacity transport spine connecting Ennis and Limerick City with Shannon Town, the Shannon Free Zone and Shannon Airport. These places already form an economic corridor, yet movement between them depends overwhelmingly on roads and private cars. Rail would allow them to function more effectively as one metropolitan area, widen the labour market available to employers and connect Shannon through the existing network to Ennis, Galway, Cork and Dublin. It would improve access to one of the Mid-West’s largest concentrations of employment, strengthen Shannon Airport as a national asset and provide an organising structure around which substantial housing and economic development could take place. Its importance lies in the capacity it would give the Mid-West to accommodate rapid growth and compete with Dublin and Cork.

The idea is not new. When Shannon Airport, Shannon Town and the Free Zone were developed in the mid-twentieth century, a railway connection formed part of the wider vision for the new regional complex. It was never delivered. Rail subsequently fell out of favour as governments prioritised roads and private cars. Ireland’s population was falling, the rail system was slow and costly, and cars offered a new freedom. Those conditions have changed and today rail is firmly back on the agenda. The All-Island Strategic Rail Review (2024) proposes expanding the island’s network from approximately 2,300 kilometres to almost 3,000 kilometres and nearly tripling annual passenger journeys by 2050.

The Shannon rail proposal already has a policy basis. The Limerick-Shannon Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy provides for identifying and protecting a route serving Shannon Town, the Free Zone and the airport. The Government-appointed Shannon Estuary Economic Taskforce called for Shannon Airport to be connected to the rail network, and the All-Island Strategic Rail Review includes the connection in its long-term vision. Unfortunately these recommendations have sat in official strategies and reports for several years now and there is still no funded programme to take the project through feasibility, route selection and preparation of a business case. Government, the National Transport Authority and opposition politicians across Clare and Limerick have shown little urgency. The imbalance in political attention is stark. Road schemes costing billions are treated as regional necessities, while the Shannon railway remains at the level of route protection and long-term aspiration, despite its overall greater benefits.

The upcoming revised Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy should set significant growth ambition and measurable population and employment targets for Shannon Town, such that it, together with Ennis and Limerick City, have population targets that support the development of the railway. Additionally, housing and employment should be earmarked for sites near to new and existing railway stations.

The proposed pipeline from the Shannon to Dublin brings the question of regional balance into sharp focus. The State is preparing to invest in infrastructure that will allow Dublin and the wider Eastern and Midlands region to keep growing. If Ireland is to become less rather than more unbalanced, it must also invest in infrastructure that enables the Mid-West to grow at a faster rate than Dublin and begin closing the gap with the capital, and with Cork too. A firm commitment to build the railway from either Cratloe or Sixmilebridge to Shannon Town, the Free Zone and Shannon Airport should accompany the water project. Water from the Shannon will help accommodate Dublin’s growth; the railway would help unlock the Mid-West’s.