Donegal North East TD Charlie McConalogue has described the Government’s stimulus plan as ‘extremely disappointing for Donegal’.
He said the plan fails to provide any new funding for road projects in Donegal, including the A5, and there will be no new funding for school building projects in Donegal under the plan. In addition to this, the two new primary care centres in Donegal are not guaranteed, as it seems they will be subject to further HSE agreement.
And there was no mention at all of the Twin Towns by-pass.
Deputy McConalogue commented: “There has been great fanfare surrounding the announcement of the government’s stimulus package this week but unfortunately it seems that this was little more than a shameless PR stunt. At best, we are only seeing the re-announcement of building projects that were originally announced by the previous Government but stopped by Fine Gael and Labour over the past year.
“Once again, Donegal has been sidelined in this announcement. There will be no new roads or new schools for Donegal. The plan includes 35 primary care centres, 2 of which are in Donegal town & Dungloe. However the fine print clearly states that only 20 of these will actually be built and only if local GPs agree. There is no guarantee if and when the centres in Donegal will be built.
“This plan provides little comfort to 20,073 people in Donegal who are currently on the Live Register. There will be very few new jobs in Donegal or in any part of the country for at least two years. The earliest we will see any of these projects commence is 2014, with some work scheduled for 2017 and beyond.
“This stimulus announcement will go nowhere towards filling the gap left by the massive cuts in capital expenditure in Donegal and across the country announced by this Government last November. Overall the Government should at least maintain capital expenditure at 2011 levels. Even with their new stimulus programme, they will not achieve this,” said Deputy McConalogue.