Public Causeway Visitor Centre at no cost to the taxpayer
26 January 2008
Traditional Unionist MEP Jim Allister has come up with a method whereby a publicly owned facility at the Causeway could be built at no cost to the taxpayer. He has proposed to the Finance Minister that some of the windfall, which Northern Ireland is due to receive in 2009 from UK dormant accounts, could be earmarked for this purpose and thereby end the controversy on the north coast.
STATEMENT BY TRADITIONAL UNIONIST MEP JIM ALLISTER:
"A few weeks ago I wrote to Peter Robinson MP enquiring as to how much Northern Ireland could expect to gain under the legislation currently going through Parliament to make available money lying in dormant bank accounts. In his reply he estimates that Northern Ireland stands to gain tens of millions in 2009 from this source. He has assured me it will not be lost into general public expenditure in the Province, nor into the Budget, but will be separately administered for signature projects which meet "social or environmental purposes".
This being so, it seems to me that a publicly owned resource and visitor facility at our primary natural heritage site, the Giant's Causeway, should be top of the list for this expenditure. It would be something from which all of Northern Ireland could benefit and in which all could take pride. Such a venture ought to meet the environmental criteria which will govern the fund. Moreover, since the funding is expected to come on stream next year it could fit well with the likely timescale involved in providing such a facility.
Thus, I am calling on the Government to give priority to this as an ideal signature project for the dormant account fund. I have also suggested to the Minister that the needs of the intensive livestock sector for a power plant to dispose of its waste, so that compliance with the Nitrates Directive can be obtained, would be another very worthwhile environmental project.
Read the correspondence here
