Vision needed to get back on track

PUBLIC spending by the Irish State has to be reduced substantially.

However, we need to demonstrate some vision with regard to how we go about this process.

For example, it appears, not for the first time in Irish history, that a recession-era Government is hoping to take the easy option of jettisoning labour-intensive economic infrastructure projects.

I refer in particular to the Railway Inter-Connector (also known as the “Dart Underground”) and the complementary underground system known as the Metro North and West.

Instead of foregoing the great benefits that will be accrued by building these projects, which may be operated by the private sector after they are built, we should focus our spending reductions on the current-account side of the State ledger.

We sometimes forget that the once-off cost of building either of the above infrastructure projects is dwarfed by the annual cost of the Government’s day-to-day spending.

We currently spend in the region of €50 billion, annually, financing the Irish public sector. Instead of postponing, indefinitely, projects that will complement and assist the future expansion and smooth running of the real economy, we should shrink the size of the public sector down to a much more nimble and efficient size, with a much smaller but more qualified and competent workforce.

We can reach our overall EU/IMF deficit targets by focussing much more on the current, and less on the capital, side of the Budget.

Much is made of so-called “cost-benefit analyses” with regard to building projects such as the Railway Inter-Connector and the Metro system. However, we need to bear in mind that if the Victorians had paid as much heed to “cost-benefit analyses” as we seem to do then the wonderful London Underground system (and countless other priceless infrastructural developments) would never have been built in the 19th century.

The Railway Inter-Connector and Metro North and West make excellent economic sense.

We could use this time of economic downturn, when the cost of building is cheaper than it would be in times of economic expansion, to build these projects for less public money. It is also a tremendous opportunity to put thousands of people to work and perhaps entice some of our recent emigrants to return home to work on these great projects.

We will then have the great benefit of a truly interconnected and joined-up transport system in our capital city, in time for the inevitable economic upturn and return to real growth. The most important thing to remember about these projects is that they are ready to go.

The torturous planning and development processes are all but completed and the building and intensive labour phase can begin immediately. It truly is an opportunity for our political leaders at this time, but it would require a modicum of vision to grasp it.

John B Reid

Knapton Road

Monkstown

Co Dublin