Regional development - Transport policy has failed utterly

THAT the announcement from Aer Lingus that it is to transfer its Shannon to London flight to Belfast was made at a time likely to limit embarrassment to the Government, will most certainly draw the usual criticisms. But the Government will respond saying the usual accusations from the usual, compromised voices is a cynical attack on government.

It is indeed part of an attack but the cynicism is all the Government’s. The level of embarrassment can be gauged by the silence from nearly all the government voices, usually so jealous of publicity.

This cynicism will also inform the Government’s efforts to ensure that this is seen as an Aer Lingus problem, not one of an impoverished and failed transport policy.

When Aer Lingus was privatised it was inevitable that commercial imperatives would dominate and that some services vital to the development of our regions would suffer. It is incomprehensible that provision has not been made for this eventuality. It is equally incomprehensible that every enterprise and investor outside of Dublin should have to consider the prospect of having their links to the leading markets of the world severed in such an arbitrary fashion.

It is almost as incomprehensible as the panic in government circles when Ryanair launched its bid to buy Aer Lingus. It is, sadly, as incomprehensible as the government expectation that we should take its proposals for decentralisation, for its spatial strategy launched amid such fanfare and promise, seriously.

On Friday, the leading businesses of the mid-west region meet to consider the implications of the decision and to formulate a response.

However fantastic their proposals might be, it is unlikely that they will surpass the promise of government announcements on transport and regional development. They will have one quality lacking in the government’s transport policies: they will be rooted in reality.