PDs unlikely to run candidates in European elections

The General Secretary of the Progressive Democrats has said that they are unlikely to run any candidates in the June European elections. John Higgins told at their annual conference in Galway delegates that they would be concentrating their efforts on the local elections by targeting specific council areas.

RTÉ's political staff says that his statement ends speculation that the former PD leader, Des O'Malley, might be an Euro candidate in the Dublin constituency. Mr. Higgins said that, at this moment, it was not their intention to nominate any candidate for the European poll.

Also this morning, Des O'Malley told the Conference the Progressive Democrats have put privatisation back on the political agenda. He supported the concept of employee share ownership and warned against the creation of private monopolies, which, he said, are frequently even worse than public ones.

Speaking at the conference last night, the party's leader has called for a huge programme of investment in infrastructure over the next ten years. The Tánaiste, Mary Harney, told delegates that the lack of proper road links of international standard is a major constraint on our ability to grow.

Mary Harney told her party delegates that we must invest in roads, railways, water and sewage services if Ireland is to remain a dynamic and successful economy, which is capable of competing with the best internationally. She said that the links must be planned in the context of an island economy and emphasised the fact that their lack is a major barrier to bringing job-creating industrial development into the regions.

She also called for private sector involvement and said that, while she does not want to see it replace public sector activity, she does want to see the overall scale of investment vastly increased. Privatisation, she said, will generate very substantial revenues for the state over the next few years.

It could bring in several millions of pounds for the Exchequer. But, she added, while it would be prudent to use some of it to reduce the national debt, it would be very imprudent not to allocate a substantial proportion of our fiscal surplus in badly needed capital projects.