Paul Melia: Jobs, jobs, jobs - that's the real test of this plan
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IN REALITY the infrastructure investment priorities announced yesterday are nothing more than cuts dressed up as a stimulus package.
But 30,000 concrete jobs in the current climate must be viewed as a good news in anyone's language.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen was certainly accentuating the positive yesterday.
Public transport and roads projects face a cut of €10bn.
The social-housing programme has been slashed from €17bn to €4.5bn.
The €75bn promised in the National Development Plan (NDP) up to 2013 will not now be spent.
But there was no mention of any cuts from Mr Cowen, whose opening address was a master class in style over substance.
The launch was in what he described as the "magnificent" National Convention Centre, overlooking the Grand Canal Theatre and the new Samuel Beckett bridge.
He also managed to name-check the IFSC, the Luas, the new motorway network, Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport and redeveloped stadiums at Lansdowne Road and Croke Park as examples of where we got it right.
But there was no mention of cuts, nor any mention of those on housing lists who are still waiting for a home.
He had nothing to say about the thousands of commuters who would much rather leave the car at home and get the train or bus to work but can't for the foreseeable future.
Nothing about the Western Rail Corridor, the Navan rail line, the new prison at Thornton Hall or the deferred new roads.
The billions of euro of projects which will not go ahead were not cut, he said, they had merely been "deferred".
The investment priorities had been "revised" and new opportunities and priorities identified.
The Taoiseach admitted that the Government no longer had the money to do all the works proposed in the National Development Plan. But instead of vague talk of "delivering a select number of new key strategic projects", why not simply identify the projects that will go ahead and the ones that won't?
Everybody knows times are tough.
ALMOST half a million people on the dole queue will tell us that -- not to mention the thousands who face losing their homes and the unfortunates who spend nights sleeping on hospital trolleys because there are no beds.
But this new investment programme -- "ambitious, appropriate and affordable" -- could help turn our fortunes around.
The Government will spend €39.5bn over the next five years on capital projects -- everything from schools to hospitals and roads to flood-defence works.
It is a massive amount of money. Some €8bn a year promised and committed and the prospect of 270,000 much-needed jobs.
It's one of the highest spends in the EU, with billions set aside for sensible projects that we should have got right a decade ago when we were still rich.
There's planning for the future -- €4bn for education and another €3.8bn for research and development projects and job creation to help the schoolchildren of today look forward to a future where emigration is a choice, not a compulsion.
There are other positives too.
The State will spend €4.4bn leasing houses in 'ghost' estates, meaning that some of the 300,000 unsold units will finally be homes, instead of empty shells.
The new DIT campus at Grangegorman will go ahead (although there is no money to build the Luas Broombridge extension to serve it). Metro North and the DART underground remain on track.
There is money to repair roads damaged during last winter's extreme weather and it was sensibly decided to put money aside to continue planning for projects that will not go ahead now but will when the economy improves.
Some €480m will be spent on flood defences but, amazingly the Office of Public Works is to spend €400m on new accommodation for civil servants at a time when children are being educated in draughty pre-fabs.
No doubt some public servants will complain that they too are in sub-standard accommodation. But it could be worse. At least they have a job. Half a million people don't.
We have no money. We can't keep borrowing, we have to cut back on spending. New offices might not be the best way to spend what little we have.
Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said the priority was to protect capital investment and public services as we return to economic growth.
He used the analogy of 'Mrs Murphy' to illustrate his point.
"Mrs Murphy mightn't notice the road is being built but she'll certainly notice that the welfare payment or some other state subsidy, grant or salary is reduced," he said.
DON'T underestimate Mrs Murphy in Slane. She will certainly notice if trucks continue to drive down her main street because the bypass isn't going ahead. Mrs Murphy in Navan won't thank the Government for forcing her to drive to work, instead of getting the train. Mrs Murphy in Carlow, whose home is flooded, won't say that sourcing new offices for civil servants instead of building flood defences is money well spent.
Even if the Government delivers only half the 270,000 promised jobs, this plan will be judged a success. But the Government must move quickly. It must start approving projects and getting people out of the dole queues. The time for talk is over. It's time for work.
pmelia@independent.ie
- Paul Melia
Irish Independent
