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Row threatens Irish roads plan
00:00 04 Jul 2001
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A row over compulsory purchase compensation is threatening the
Irish Republic's IR£4.7bn road-building programme.
Thousands of Irish farmers are defying CPOs on their land in a fight to win double the compensation of IR£10,000 an acre being offered by the National Roads Authority. At an emergency meeting last week, the 100,000-strong Irish Farmers' Association ordered all members to bar surveyors, planners and other officials from their property until "a radical increase" in compensation is agreed.
More than 25,000 acres of farmland are involved, and the decision effectively freezes work on a whole series of projects, from motorways and bypasses to the upgrading of existing routes.
The Irish Business and Employers' Confederation has urged the government to resist the demands for increased compensation, which it claimed would cost IR£400m - double the amount allowed for in the roads programme budget.
There is now serious concern about whether the government's IR£22bn national development plan, of which the roads programme is an essential element, can be delivered within its six-year deadline. The EU Commission in Brussels has suggested that "some less urgent capital projects" in the plan should be postponed.
A Commission spokesman declined to identify which projects should be delayed, but said: "There is no point in pushing more demand into a sector like the construction industry, which is already stretched."
A leading Irish economist, Jim O'Leary of Davy Stockbrokers, has called for the cancellation or postponement of Stadium Ireland, the national sports campus that is likely to cost close to IR£1bn, and the IR£5.7bn metro system planned for Dublin.
"It would make more sense to rank projects in order of importance and pursue them accordingly," he warned.
Thousands of Irish farmers are defying CPOs on their land in a fight to win double the compensation of IR£10,000 an acre being offered by the National Roads Authority. At an emergency meeting last week, the 100,000-strong Irish Farmers' Association ordered all members to bar surveyors, planners and other officials from their property until "a radical increase" in compensation is agreed.
More than 25,000 acres of farmland are involved, and the decision effectively freezes work on a whole series of projects, from motorways and bypasses to the upgrading of existing routes.
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The Irish Business and Employers' Confederation has urged the government to resist the demands for increased compensation, which it claimed would cost IR£400m - double the amount allowed for in the roads programme budget.
There is now serious concern about whether the government's IR£22bn national development plan, of which the roads programme is an essential element, can be delivered within its six-year deadline. The EU Commission in Brussels has suggested that "some less urgent capital projects" in the plan should be postponed.
A Commission spokesman declined to identify which projects should be delayed, but said: "There is no point in pushing more demand into a sector like the construction industry, which is already stretched."
A leading Irish economist, Jim O'Leary of Davy Stockbrokers, has called for the cancellation or postponement of Stadium Ireland, the national sports campus that is likely to cost close to IR£1bn, and the IR£5.7bn metro system planned for Dublin.
"It would make more sense to rank projects in order of importance and pursue them accordingly," he warned.
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