Dublin should consider moving some or all of its port business and opening up even more of the docklands for development, a conference on planning was told last weekend.

The conference entitled "Metropolitan Corridors Planning for the Future?" which was organised in association with the schools of architecture of UCD, Queens University Belfast, the University of Ulster and the Dublin Institute of Technology, heard the port would run out of capacity, even allowing for slow growth, in the next four years.

During a session on developing an all-Ireland economy Sir George Quigley, chairman of Bombardier Aerospace Shorts and president of the Institute of International Trade of Ireland, said Belfast had excellent air and seaport links which could be accessed from many parts of the island as easily as Dublin port was accessed.

Sir George maintained that in considering an all-Ireland economy, consideration should be given to developing the air and seaports of Dublin as hubs for much of the island.

In a question and answer session, delegates from many of Dublin's leading architectural practices and town planners took up the theme of congestion around Dublin port and its plans for filling in a further 52 acres of the bay to increase activity. Speakers argued such a move was unsustainable, even allowing for the delivery of the Port Tunnel and completion of the as-yet unconfirmed eastern by-pass. It was also pointed out that Dublin city centre was moving. Where once the centre of business had been in the area around Christchurch, it had moved east towards O'Connell Street and was now moving again into the former docklands area. New developments in the Dublin docklands area north and south of the river Liffey would bring the city even further east and delegates argued that this was incompatible with a growing port.

A number of delegates spoke of the possibilities to solve the housing requirement and create a new urban living space on the "broad canvas" that would remain.

However, the Dublin City Manager, Mr John Fitzgerald, told the conference that Dublin Corporation considered the docklands a vital portion of the city. While he accepted that the port traffic "trundled through the city, damaging it" he said completely moving the port was bound to create the same problems elsewhere.

He argued that previous plans to locate the port in Lough Swilly would simply have transferred the congestion there.

Of the port authority's requirement for an additional 52 acres Mr Fitzgerald said the Corporation had an "open mind". However, he would like to see more thought put into a study of the existing land uses within the port, he added.

"Thirty per cent of the port's business is destined for the city of Dublin and 60 per cent goes to what is now the Greater Dublin Area, the area within a 50-mile radius of Dublin, so I don't believe taking Dublin Port out of Dublin is feasible," he concluded.