Self-reliance is set to become a markedly new feature of political life in Ireland as the State prepares for the next phase of economic, infrastructural and regional planning. Transfers available from the European Union will be revealed much more precisely this week as the Agenda 2000 budgetary arrangements are negotiated, hopefully to a conclusion, in Berlin. The Government enters the final phase of these discussions armed with a valuable analysis of investment needs and priorities from the Economic and Social Research Institute. Its call for a reorientation of policy towards managing success and ensuring the momentum of economic growth strikes the right note at this stage of Ireland's development.
Economic planning has become closely bound up with securing the optimum level of EU transfers. This is revealed in the fact that the ESRI study is specifically geared towards preparation of the next National Development Plan, outlining the State's investment plans with EU support. It will be submitted to Brussels to justify the programmes qualifying for that support, putting them in a wider context of national development. In an interesting methodological departure the ESRI study states that "the potential source of funding for public investment should not affect the choice of priorities so our recommendations are made independently of whether or not the projects will be eligible for EU funding. If a project is worth undertaking with EU funding it is equally worth undertaking with Irish taxpayers' funds".
The change of mentalities involved is best appreciated in the light of an acute critique of Irish public investment planning published in these pages today. Fintan O'Toole says that as a result of the very success in drawing down EU funding in the last decade "we look not for money to fund ideas but for ideas that will attract funding". He also refers to an "ideological double think" according to which Irish governments have supported expansionary programmes at the EU level and retrenchment strategies at home. The question now is whether these approaches are appropriate any longer in the light of the monies available from Brussels, strong employment growth and the changing economic and social priorities of national planning.
There is in fact a happy coincidence of changing opportunities and needs which could be turned to advantage by the Government if it follows the broad parameters of the ESRI document. The ESRI argues that top priority should be given to investment in public physical infrastructure, including roads, public transport, sanitary services, social housing and social, cultural and recreational infrastructure. It recognises that congestion and infrastructural bottlenecks are more important than the employment creation projects which - necessarily and valuably - carried more weight in the past.
Such new priorities will have to be funded largely by the Irish exchequer and taxpayers; but this is now more affordable and economically sustainable. The challenge will be to ensure they are under-written by a more confident self-reliance and a forward planning approach that can command general social and political consensus as EU funding is phased down.