Governments announce all-island blueprint
Thursday, 26 October 2006 13:25The Irish and British governments have announced a series of proposals to strengthen North/South economic co-operation.
More than ¤100 billion could be spent on developing infrastructure such as roads, energy and telecommunications over the next ten years as part of the plan.
According to the two governments, this blueprint represents a new level of North/South economic co-operation.
The Northern Secretary, Peter Hain, said the study sets out a vision of a strong competitive and socially inclusive island economy.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, said the opportunities for all-island collaboration must be exploited in order to be globally competitive.
This means improving areas such as research and development, innovation and also infrastructure.
The Irish Government has not put a figure on its contribution, because the National Development Plan is not due to be released until early next year.
However, among the major cross-border road plans to be examined would be the northwest route from Dublin to Letterkenny.
Northern Ireland politicians are due to lobby UK Chancellor Gordon Brown next week about the British aid package.
