The prospect of a tunnel being built below the Irish Sea from England to Northern Ireland - with a staging post in the Isle of Man - was mooted in a newspaper at the weekend.

The Sunday Times printed a story headlined ’Engineers want a tunnel of love under Irish Sea to unite UK’.

A number of options - and their pitfalls - were discussed.

The last sentence of the story quotes Bill Grose, the lead author of a report published by the Institution of Civil Engineers about the possibility of such a tunnel.

It reads: ’A tunnel starting north of Liverpool that surfaced in the Isle of Man and went back under Belfast would solve the problems.’

Mr Grose, who is also the former chairman of the British Tunnelling Society, told the Sunday Times that tunnelling prices had dropped.

The British Tunnelling Society’s research is part of an initiative from Elon Musk, the man behind Tesla cars, who is championing ’hyperloop’ technology.

Hyperloop is a sealed tube or system of tubes through which a pod may travel free of air resistance or friction conveying people or objects at high speed while being very efficient, thereby reducing travel times over medium-range distances.

The Sunday Times article makes no mention of Mr Musk or the hyperloop technology.

The Examiner has read through the British Tunnelling Society’s workshop report.

It makes no mention of the Isle of Man at all.

Mr Grose told the Examiner that he had been talking to the Sunday Times about future tunnelling projects.

’These are just concept ideas, based on speculating what tunnelled projects might be possible if the cost of construction can be significantly reduced and the technical difficulties of long tunnels (e.g. ventilation, safety, emergency escape) can be solved,’ he told the Examiner.

’I don’t know whether anyone has seriously considered it. You would know better than me.’

He added there would be shorter routes than one via the Isle of Man but these would involve long roads or rails either side of the water to join the tunnel to places that people want to go.

’It seemed that to go from somewhere in North Wales or Liverpool to Belfast. It would make sense to surface in the Isle of Man, to shorten the tunnels and to join in another part of the country.’

The Examiner suggested that a shorter tunnel might be more likely.

Mr Grose said: ’You’re right, a tunnel from Stranraer [in Scotland] to Larne [in Northern Ireland] would be technically more feasible, but maybe an overall project would be more expensive as the tunnel wouldn’t join up directly with national infrastructure.’

Another route Mr Grose suggested could be between Holyhead in Anglesey and Dublin, which is about 50 miles. But that would link the UK with the Republic of Ireland and, therefore, the EU, rather than Northern Ireland.

A line drawn straight from Maughold Head, the most easterly point of the Isle of Man, to the Lake District measures 36 miles.

But the western Lakes are remote and a long way from motorways, so a longer route is likely to be needed to reach existing transport links further south.

A line direct from Peel to Ardglass in Northern Ireland is 31 miles. Again, that’s some distance from major transport links.

The Channel Tunnel is 31 miles long.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has suggested that a bridge could be built between Scotland and Northern Ireland. Officials are currently looking at the idea and the cost has been estimated at £15billion.

An advantage of tunnels over bridges is that they are less prone to bad weather and tunnelling is getting cheaper, Mr Grose said.

Garff MHK Daphne Caine spotted the Sunday Times story.

She tweeted: ’Very interested in this article. If taken forward @IOMGovernment definitely should discuss the solution in last paragraph: tunnel from Liverpool to surface in Isle of Man on to Belfast. The Steam Packet also should take note.’