The Regional Director of IBEC West has urged the Government to hold its nerve in relation to capital spending.

Speaking last week, Mr John Brennan said it is now more important than ever that the Government focus on the delivery of the National Development Plan.

"Our objective must be to get back the competitive edge we developed in the period 1993-2000. The economic growth that Ireland has enjoyed in more recent years has been overly driven by domestic demand factors, namely construction and consumer spending.

"We need to supplement this by trading successfully overseas through restoring competitiveness by containing costs and enhancing productivity. Trade is the only sustainable source of prosperity. "The National Development Plan should enhance our ability to compete by providing the platform to increase national productivity. With the slowdown in house building, this is a particularly opportune time to fast-track the construction of roads and other infrastructure priorities.

"To have accelerated the delivery of the NDP earlier, when house building was booming, would have risked driving up costs. It is particularly important that we deliver NDP projects to gateway towns and hubs rapidly so that balanced regional development will become a reality.

"The lack of major access and transport corridors into and across the West is one of the key inhibitors of growth and competitiveness. Any delay in completing projects, such as the N18 Galway to Limerick route or the Ballaghaderreen and Longford By-pass on the N5 Mayo/Dublin corridor, poses a threat to the viability of businesses located in the West. The poor condition of these routes is already having a significant adverse impact on delivery scheduling and on road haulage costs. The new National Development Plan gave a commitment to Balanced Regional Development; we now need the Government to back this up with appropriate investments. The situation in the West is likely to worsen unless a serious attempt is made to address these critical projects," Mr Brennan concluded.

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