Call for task force to oversee €100bn infrastructure spend

The British and Irish governments are facing calls today to establish a high-level task force to co-ordinate the planned investment of €100nm in infrastructure north and south of the border.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions said the body could draw up a plan to ensure the spend of €24bn in the North and €76bn in the Republic delivers maximum benefit to citizens on both sides of the border.

Congress Assistant General Secretary Peter Bunting was due to tell a seminar in Dundalk, organised jointly by the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) and the north’s Strategic Investment Board (SIB), that it is essential the investment is linked up.

“Such an approach is essential to ensure that this expenditure of €100bn of ordinary taxpayers’ money is used in a way that recognises the integral connection between a dynamic economy and a decent society,” he said.

“This unique investment opportunity can also develop practical ways of building effective and energetic relationships North and South that enable a re-skilled and integrated labour market.

“Such an investment will have a major social and economic impact. We want to ensure that this investment changes patterns of disadvantage, protects and enhances work opportunities and supports the development of indigenous enterprise.”

Congress President Peter McCloone said both governments and the social partners should be included in talks about the initiative.

SIPTU President Jack O’Connor said: “This €100bn must be used in a way that recognises that public procurement practices have a responsibility to understand the social and economic impact of any such expenditure.”