A chara, - I am disappointed, but not surprised, at the lack of any extra funding for infrastructural development west of the Shannon.
Charlie McCreevy has taken his best shot at an election budget, but we will still be disproportionately disadvantaged here in Mayo. There has been no additional funding to speed the implementation of the National Development Plan to deliver on the N5 or the N26.
For £250 million, about a third of the cost of the "Bertie Bowl", we could have seen the basis for development here.
The estimated cost of providing the gas pipeline to Ballina and Sligo is £50 million. Iarnr≤d ╔ireann estimates that £100 million would reopen the Sligo-Limerick rail line. According to groups such as the Western Roads Action Committee and others, £50 million above and beyond the monies allocated under the NDP would ensure that the main primary road into Mayo - the N5 - could be completed by 2006; and £50 million spent on broadband technology would put a comprehensive high-tech communications infrastructure in place.
This level of investment would have given us a chance to be ready to compete when the economy picks up again. As things stand, we will have to continue to make the same arguments for road, rail and other infrastructure while lagging behind other regions.
After nearly five years of budget surpluses, the failure to address regional inequality is a disgrace. - Is mise,
Vincent Wood, Newtown Clogher, Claremorris, Co Mayo.