LEO’S €116BN PROJECT..
»»10 new hospitals to be built as part of ambitious revamp »»€900million motorway to link limerick and Cork city »»Metro rail link for swords and dublin airport confirmed »»Between 25,000 & 35,000 homes constructed each year
TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has launched a capital spending splurge for the next decade that will cost the taxpayer €116billion.
The list of infrastructure goodies unveiled include projects across health, transport and education.
And the largesse is spread across the country, from Dublin to Cork, Galway, Sligo, Donegal and almost everywhere in between.
However, there was still some criticism last night that rural Ireland was not getting a fair crack of the whip compared to the greater Dublin area, but Rural Affairs Minister Michael Ring defended the Government, saying non-urban areas “will thrive” under the new scheme.
The plan, part of Project Ireland 2040, predicts there will be one million more people living in Ireland in 20 years and development and upgrade of infrastructure is necessary to ensure Ireland remains a great place to live.
Some of the key highlights of the plan include confirmation at last of a metro rail link from the airport and Swords, North Co Dublin, at a cost of €3billion.
It will also bring 10 new hospitals, including three in Dublin, Cork and Galway, as part of the €10billion spend in health, and €22billion will be set aside for tackling climate change problems. A €900million motorway will be built linking Limerick and Cork and there will be 25,000 to 35,000 new homes constructed each year before the end of the plan, with 112,000 of them to be social housing. Sligo, the host town for the launch, will become a new designated regional economic centre, along with Athlone, where the Government will provide added support to upgrade the towns to compete with the country’s cities.
Letterkenny, Drogheda and Dundalk will also be prioritised.
Speaking to reporters following the launch, a confident Mr Varadkar said the Government has the cash and wants to get on with action.
He added: “We have the plan, we have the money, now we move on to implementation.” The Taoiseach said
we could “turn back on” projects that had initially been stalled due to the recession and that he “encouraged” other parties to get behind the plan so that it gives some cover to it not being dismantled by a future government led by an opposition party.
Enterprise Minister Heather Humphreys added: “This is a realistic and achievable framework to ensure we will have the infrastructure to cater for the extra one million people who will live in Ireland by
2040.” The business of Government moved to the North West yesterday with the Cabinet convening in the Institute of Technology Sligo. The plan actually consists of two schemes, the 20-year National Planning Framework and the National Development Plan.
The latter is the juiciest of the two with a budget of €116billion for spending on capital projects such as roads and hospitals over the next decade.
We have the plan, we have the money and now we implement
LEO VARADKAR SLIGO
YESTERDAY