“You will never regret spending money on capital.” Tánaiste Simon Harris chose an unconscious tribute to Edith Piaf’s “Non, je ne regrette rien” in his contribution to the government press conference announcing the new National Development Plan (NDP) on Tuesday. Announcing the five-year capital programme, including the Dublin Metrolink for which no cost estimate is available or apparently required, he promised a focus on “delivery, delivery, delivery”. An easy way to expedite delivery is to skip the evaluation of competing projects and get shovels in the ground. Since the ambitions of project promoters seeking public subvention will always exceed the…

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