Madam, - As the days of wine and roses (and surpluses) draw to a close, we still see fit to pour money into that rather vague notion of infrastructure. This, it appears, is our master plan for hanging on to our economic good times. For "infrastructure", we can read "motorways". It seems to me that there is no coherent plan for public transport, or public anything, for that matter. But despite reports that a knowledge-based economy is the way forward for our little island, the Government has a motorway-building agenda and it wants to borrow money to push it through.
No amount of blather about critical infrastructure from various Departments, or hand-wringing from ISME, is going to make any difference to a manufacturing company's decision to locate here. It is wages, plain and simple, and on that score, we cannot compete with low-cost economies such as those in Asia, even if we pave our streets with gold. Indigenous businesses and local people do not require motorways - tolled ones at that - to get around. Better public transport, especially railways, are required. This would also take the pressure off the road network.
To sink millions of euro into schemes such as the M3 will not benefit the economy, but will cause enormous damage to our heritage and environment. Investing instead in proper public transport, health, education and the broadband network would make a lot more sense.
Unless of course, there is another agenda here. The "silver bullet" solution promised by public private partnerships has turned out to be something of a dud for the public, but not for those private companies which profit handsomely from the deals.
One day perhaps, despite a few dodgy donations and unwarranted pay rises, the PPP deals will be exposed as the real scandal of our times. -
Yours, etc,
DECLAN KENNY, Leixlip, Co Kildare.