Madam, - It must have now dawned on even the most vaguely interested among us that politicians, of whatever persuasion, have shown themselves to be thoroughly incapable of planning, costing and delivering a single major capital project in this country at a cost remotely close to the original budget. And it is about time something is finally done to call a halt to it.
There is no use attacking the current group of politicians in power because this has also been a consistent characteristic of all previous governments. The National Road Building Scheme was costed at €4.7 billion. Yet it eventually cost us, the taxpayers, €11 billion. The Dublin Port Tunnel was originally costed at €148 million. The latest estimate has ballooned to €480 million. The continental style Luas project has gone from an original costing of €288 million to an incredible €800 million.
This consistent record of incompetence makes me ask: Who has been fired? Who has been demoted? Who has been blamed?
The answer is, of course, no one. It appears that billions of our money can be spent and wasted, projects incompetently costed and idiotic decisions and mistakes made without any worry about blame.
Our money is, it seems, free to squander. Easy come, easy go appears to be the motto de jour.
Well, I for one am sick of it. It is about time that all large capital projects were taken away from politicians, of all parties, and handled by an independent and transparently accountable "National Capital Projects Agency".
This agency must be manned by industry professionals of the highest calibre, and must be able to call on expertise from all parts of industry, national and overseas, to plan, cost and budget major projects.
It must then place the contracts for those projects in such a way that they are completed on time, with late completion being penalised like any other industry contract, and excess costs borne by those who agree to carry out the work for a price, and not the taxpayer.
We must call an end to the open season on Irish taxpayers' money. - Yours, etc,
HOWARD BRITTAIN,
Killiney,
Co Dublin.