Commenting today on spending plans for the Department of Transport, Tourism & Sport, Minister Leo Varadkar said he aims to get the best return for taxpayers from the reduced allocation for the Department.
"The decisions we made in Budget 2012 were the ones that flowed from the mandate given to us by the Irish people in the General Election. Throughout this process I have recognised the need for my Department to deliver on its share of the required reduction in public expenditure. Our job as Ministers is not to act as a lobbyist on behalf of the sectors which our Department covers. Our job is to do the best we can for the public in general.
"The current expenditure provision for the Department for 2012 is €786 million - a reduction of €69 million on the current year estimate. Capital expenditure will fall by €267 million to €1,231 million. Cuts of this magnitude necessitated that some very good and worthwhile projects had to be curtailed or postponed. The aim is therefore to get maximum return for the taxpayer from the still considerable planned investment in transport, tourism and sport."
Some details include:
There will be an 8% reduction in subsidies for the CIE group, saving €21 million in 2011. This will result in an increase in fares to be determined by the National Transport Authority. However, CIE has been asked to develop business plans to achieve savings and cost reductions ahead of fare increases or service reductions. A further reduction in subsidies of roughly €32 million will occur between now and 2015;
Grants will be discontinued under the Local Improvements Scheme achieving a saving of €5 million. Although this scheme is important to rural communities, the maintenance and improvement of these private roads is primarily a matter for the relevant landowner. The Community Investment Scheme will be retained as it relates to public roads;
The NRA will discontinue the practice of paying €5,000 per acre ‘Goodwill’ payments to landowners. This will result in significant savings when large scale land acquisition commences again. For example, when the suspended Cork/Limerick M20 motorway project proceeds to land acquisition stage, the decision to end goodwill payments will result in savings of around €4 million. Goodwill payments will remain in place for those projects for which the "Notice to Treat" has already been served;
Maintenance of regional and local roads has already benefited from an additional €60 million this year and will now experience modest reductions. A similar reduction of 8% will apply to rural transport, saving €850,000;
Maintenance of the National Road and Motorway network will be reduced by 1% saving €633,000;
€6.5m will be saved through reduced operational payments for PPP roads;
€3.5m will be saved from efficiencies and greater use of IT for Vehicle and Driver Licensing;
€3m is being saved from reductions to the administrative budgets of the NRA, RPA, Railway Safety Commission, and Medical Bureau of Road Safety (a reduction of approximately 7%-10%);
Funding for the Coast Guard will be maintained at €3.4 million per annum through to 2015 in view of its essential role. This is separate from provision made for the SAR helicopter contract which will rise from €27.9 million in 2011 to €33.4 million in 2012, €53.3 million in 2013 and €58.9 million in 2014 and 2015;
Funding for the Royal National Lifeboats (RNLI), Mountain Rescue, Weather Buoys and the Marine Casualty Investigation Board will be maintained at current levels through to 2015;
Funding for the Irish Sports Council will be reduced by 5% from €46.8 million to €44.5 million in 2012 with further reductions to approximately €40 million in 2015. Funding for the National Sports Campus will be maintained at €1.5 million per annum;
The budget for Fáilte Ireland will be reduced by 5% to €59.4 million saving just over €3.1 million with a further reduction to €56.3 million planned for 2013 and €53.2 million in 2014. However, a special allocation for ‘The Gathering’ will be made later in the year which will mean that overall funding for tourism will remain largely unchanged in 2012;
Funding will be provided for key existing public transport programmes such as railway safety, bus fleet replacement for PSO routes, traffic management programmes including QBC upgrades, as well as to facilitate advancement of Luas BXD. Funding will also be provided for the completion and operation of the Integrated Ticketing project in the Greater Dublin Area and for traffic management projects including QBCs in the regional cities.