Competing Priorities
The Stormont press pack didn't have a lot of time to analyse last night's investment announcements as the Executive meeting over ran many of our teatime deadlines. A shame, given that ministers wanted to get what they view as "good news" out to their voters. Perhaps in the future the Executive will start their deliberations earlier on Thursdays, although this would mean an earlier start for ministers who are double jobbing as MPs, as most of them are travelling back from London on Thursday mornings.
Now the dust has settled on the Titanic and Rapid Transit announcements, some voices have been raised arguing that these projects should not have been considered the most "urgent". Why no immediate move on Margaret Ritchie's fuel poverty package, or no committment to build the new Women and Childrens' hospital at the Royal?
Fuel poverty is likely to form part of the wider package which the Assembly will be asked to consider next month (although as Stormontspy has pointed out the price of oil has slumped since the package was first mooted).
No doubt the Executive will argue that the justification for the £43.5 million capital spend on the Titanic project is the hope that this will become a great income generator for Belfast. Cynics counter that the project will end up as a "white elephant". To know who's right we'd need a pair of binoculars (an item of equipment distinctly lacking in the Crow's Nest on the fateful night) which could enable us to see into the future.
The question of competing priorities is one I may well raise with the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness who is my guest on tomorrow's "Inside Politics". As usual, the programme will be broadcast on 91Èȱ¬ Radio Ulster at 12.45pm
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