Recovery projects

TODAY two stories underline the challenges facing a peripheral region trying to compete in an international economy and international jobs market.

One details the ongoing struggle, including a call to Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe to become involved, to bring a transatlantic service to Cork Airport.

This service would be a wonderful boon to the facility and the region and seems worth fighting for.

The other also deals with transport. One of the State’s senior transport engineers has said there is a very strong economic case for a Cork to Limerick motorway.

He suggests that, based on figures in the State’s Transport Infrastructure Ireland study, the benefits of such a motorway would outweigh the scheme by a ratio of two-to-one.

Less than two weeks ago, Mr Donohoe dismissed the project saying it was too expensive.

The Government goes to the hustings trumpeting economic recovery, but as anyone outside the Pale knows too well, that recovery is uneven.

Projects like these would help make it real for all citizens.