We urgently need a minister for infrastructure

The time has come to call on An Taoiseach to appoint a minister for infrastructure to oversee the implementation of the National Development Plan.

The National Development Plan was intended to be the route map by which we would all arrive at the future. However, it is more of a road to hell, both paved and potholed with good intentions and flyovers in the face of reality. I see the current rate of implementation of the roads element of the National Development Plan as an utterly inept attempt to address infrastructural deficit —for this you can read perpetual primary route paralysis and general gridlock in cities and towns.

There is a pressing need for the appointment of a minister for infrastructure to oversee projects which at present come under four different Departments. The National Roads Authority are thinking on too small a scale. Foreign contractors will not be lured by 40-50 projects because the upfront costs of a public-private partnership are too great. Despite the millions of hours lost in traffic each year, the crisis mentality needed to get things moving just isn’t there.