McCreevy challenges ESRI recommendations

A number of recommendations made recently by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) have been challenged by the Minister for Finance.

Mr McCreevy was replying to the Labour spokeswoman on finance, Ms Joan Burton, who said she was glad the Minister acknowledged the deficiencies pointed out to the Government in such trenchant terms by the ESRI.

"Can the Minister explain to the House why the National Development Plan has failed to upgrade the country's competitive position?" she asked.

Mr McCreevy said there was nothing unusual about the fact that ministers had been critical of recommendations made about specific policy areas. "I have said that the ESRI evaluation is worthwhile and useful as a basis for the Government's future consideration of attitudes," he added.

"I do not think that a Labour Party government would accept some of the ESRI's recommendations, for example, that mortgage interest relief and film relief be abolished, that congestion charges and road tolls be introduced and that the amount of money spent on capital projects such as hospitals be reduced.

"I would be interested to hear the Labour Party advocate its support for these proposals," Mr McCreevy said.

His Cabinet colleagues had mentioned some of the recommendations which would be adopted, but nobody in the House would advocate their adoption.

Mr McCreevy said he accepted that the National Development Plan expenditure was behind the indicative target for the BMW (Border-Midlands-Western) region. "However, the previous Fianna Fáil and Progressive Democrats administration decided to break the country into two regions.

"This was not accepted by all parties in the House, but it was a good decision. Its purpose was to attract a higher level of EU funding for the Objective One regions, which is the BMW region. It has worked well."