Irish Government ‘postpones’ £400m A5 upgrade funding

Given the dire economic situation, and the fact that the Northern Ireland Regional Development Minister isn’t due to decide how the A5 Western Transport Corridor is to progress until “early 2012”, it’s hardly surprising that the Irish Government has withdrawn its £400million contribution to the £850million scheme.  The RTÉ report describes it as being ‘postponed’ after a “review of a range of major capital infrastructure commitments”.  [Indefinitely? – Ed]  You might well think that… As Irish Labour Party transport spokesman,  Joe …

Read more…

Scrapping plan for on-street parking charges across NI leaves £8.8m hole

As the BBC reports, Northern Ireland Regional Development Minister, the UUP’s Danny Kennedy, has shelved his predecessor, Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy’s, plans to extend on-street parking charges to 30 towns and cities across Northern Ireland.  Leaving a £8.8million hole in his budget.  From the BBC report The minister now has an £8.8m hole in his budget because of the projected revenue lost from on-street parking. He said this would have to be plugged by making cuts in other areas. “Given …

Read more…

“As far as I’m concerned it’s business as usual.”

Perhaps an unfortunate turn of phrase deployed by the Northern Ireland Regional Development Minister, Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy, of a department whose Permanent Secretary has just been suspended pending investigation over the NI Water saga – ostensibly for surreptitiously drafting a letter of complaint to the PAC [for a third party]. Meanwhile, UTV’s Jamie Delargy reports that Northern Ireland Electricity has also been guilty of not putting out some contracts to competitive tendering. While the proper process was followed with some of the …

Read more…