Capital Spending Plan Short On Detail For Rural Ireland

In the Dail on Wednesday during a debate about the recently published Capital Spending Plan, I pointed out that while any extra spending in the country is welcome particularly in rural areas, one has to look behind this announcement to see what the real truth is. The facts are that several roads projects which were announced in the plan are either almost completed or have been announced several times before. With regard to broadband, we have heard at least five different announcements in recent years yet the service on the ground has not improved hardly at all. We have heard a 450 million Euro announcement for the upgrade of homes for the elderly and the disabled yet there is no detail at all as to where this money will be spent. On the question of social housing, once again there have been several announcements and photo calls and people going around with hard hats on them yet there is little evidence that this problem is actually being tackled. It’s easy to make announcements and promise all these things especially when there is an election on the way, but I and others will be watching very closely to see if the Government follow up on this plan and implement it.