Ireland is ‘dangerously asymmetrical’: Galway and Limerick vital to its future – The Irish Times

There are few places more beautiful than the West of Ireland experiencing an Indian summer. On Thursday morning, as the sun broke through the mist, the city of Limerick emerged, a Georgian jewel. Looking east across the slow-moving River Shannon, with the bright autumn light illuminating this well-planned patchwork of red-brick streets, it was not hard to imagine Limerick’s potential to become a model of renewed small-town life.

On Friday morning, again in the cheerful sunshine, the liveliness in the heart of Galway City evoked another size and style. These two cities, Limerick and Galway, are essential to the future development of Ireland.

The west coast is Ireland’s economic secret weapon and if planned properly over the next 50 years, the development of the west could help ensure that the country becomes properly sustainable. The likely unification of the island – in some form – would mean that the west has woken up again.

Geographically, unity is an eastern affair, with the Dublin/Belfast corridor dominating in terms of population density, income, industry and economic weight. Left to its own devices, the economy is likely to become even more concentrated in a narrow strip of land from Wicklow to Antrim. But the cities on the rest of the island have to balance this, and balance requires a plan.

Galway has always been a bit special because of the strong tourist traffic, boosted by the Wild Atlantic Way marketing in recent years, which has continued into the autumn. This week is Freshers’ Week and 20,000 University students return. As well as the good weather, this creates an infectious atmosphere.

The town of Druid and Macnas has long been a stronghold of Irish culture, theatre and art. It now also boasts culinary excellence (for example Aniar, Kai and Ard Bia) which has attracted much praise in the Financial Times and elsewhere. The natural beauty of Connemara, the Burren and the Clare coast is unparalleled.

But it’s not all tradition and lobster – quite the opposite. The West is becoming a powerhouse in the pharmaceutical and biomedical sectors. Galway is home to medical device giants like Medtronic and Boston Scientific, while Limerick boasts pharmaceutical leaders like Regeneron and Eli Lilly.

The world’s 10 largest biopharmaceutical companies are now headquartered in Ireland and have fundamentally transformed the region’s economic landscape. The biopharmaceutical sector accounts for over 60 per cent of Ireland’s total exports. We are now the world’s third largest exporter of pharmaceutical products, with exports worth over €116 billion per year.

The medical technology sector alone employs over 25,000 people, mostly in these cities. Galway is the European centre for medical technology, employing 15,000 people in the city alone, and half of the medtech companies based in Galway have dedicated R&D centres.

( Ireland may be unable to fill future biopharmaceutical jobs, report saysOpens in a new window )

Over the past decade, €10 billion has been invested in new biopharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in Ireland. Around 80 per cent of the world’s supply of stents is now made here, mostly at facilities on the eastern outskirts of Galway City that can produce around 10,000 stents a day, or around two million a year.

Local success stories such as Aerogen – the Galway-based respiratory and medical equipment company founded over 25 years ago above a butcher’s shop in Moycullen – now generate revenues of around €120 million and employ around 500 people in the city.

Limerick has cemented its position as a biopharmaceutical hub with the announcement this week of a $1 billion (€927 million) investment by Eli Lilly to create another 150 jobs at its Raheen facility, bringing the total number of jobs at the site to 450. And beyond these healthcare industries, both Galway and Limerick have vibrant technology and financial services sectors.

But as is always the case in Ireland, this private sector vitality is hampered by a pathetic infrastructure base. Housing shortages have reached crisis levels in both Limerick and Galway. The latest Daft Rental Report for Q2 of this year found that average rents in Galway city were €2,114 per month, up 13.3 per cent year-on-year. Limerick struggled with a slightly lower average rent of €2,107, but a much higher increase of 21.2 per cent. The average selling price of properties for sale in Galway city was €402,885, compared with €292,253 for a purchase in Limerick.

( Oireachtas Committee advises planning for a united Ireland to start nowOpens in a new window )

Transport infrastructure tells a similar story of neglect. Galway is ranked 37th in the world for congestion and 14th in Europe on the 2023 Global Traffic Scorecard, meaning drivers in the city spend an extra 73 hours a year in their cars – almost €1,000 of their time on minimum wage.

The report also estimates that Galway’s traffic jams have become 12 per cent worse year-on-year. That’s absurd. The situation in Limerick isn’t much better, with Mick Mackey’s roundabout being just as chaotic every morning, and there are often traffic jams on the M7.

Ireland needs to take spatial development and planning seriously. The West (and South) should be a national priority and that means connecting cities in the same way that other European countries do. Take the Netherlands for example, where small towns are connected by decent rail services, which strengthens connections and creates clusters of industry and economic activity in smaller towns other than the main ones.

The Dutch have some 27 small towns with populations ranging from 50,000 to 100,000 – as small as Waterford City and as large as Limerick or Galway. Most of their various towns are efficiently connected by rail: from Eindhoven to Arnhem (70 km) in 1 hour 10 minutes; from Leiden to Utrecht (40 km) in 35 minutes; and from Groningen to Leeuwarden (55 km) in 35 minutes. By comparison, the distance between Galway and Limerick (85 km) is similar to Eindhoven-Arnhem, but the journey takes at least two hours, and there are only four trains per day.

The Netherlands has maintained this vibrant ecosystem of interconnected smaller towns deliberatelyThe Dutch designed the map of the country by increasing public investment in sparsely populated areas to minimize internal migration, which would naturally depopulate smaller cities and thus their capacity.

As we await constitutional change on this island, we need to reimagine the mental map of the county, away from the centralisation of Dublin in the Republic and Belfast in the North. When the country was divided in 1921, the process of concentration in the east and north-east was perpetuated. Now the island is dangerously asymmetrical, and the economic future of the island should be distributed, not concentrated.

The West has woken up. Let’s make sure it stays that way.