Roadbridge Limited is a top-level Irish construction company in headquartered in Limerick. They build roads, rail, data centres and wind farms. The Irish Times report they are going bust.
That’s bad news for the 1000 people working there and the connected projects which are running for the next two and a half years here in Ireland, in the Middle East and UK.
People Before Profit believes these should be the good green union jobs our representatives and branches have been calling for. The civil engineering projects, like Roadbridge do, provide the stuff we will need to build a green future: rail, windfarms, roads. We say: Why is its provision still being left to the market?
Markets are good at finding profits by driving down costs in a stable world. But for the stability and investment needed for real innovation especially in times of change and crisis, we need institutions and companies that are safe from the dangers of the market and can work to build our green future and provide the good green union jobs we need- no matter what.
To create new infrastructure and refit the old, while growing the numbers of good green union jobs here, state-owned construction companies are needed. The imminent collapse of Roadbridge shows us how important that is.
We need a state-owned rail and road-building company that can cope with fluctuations and keep building a green future for Ireland.
STATE-OWNED CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES
State owned construction companies make sense if we want to (and we need to) build an innovative future that is actually green. There are plenty of good examples. State-owned construction companies don’t need regular profits, but if profits come in they can go back to the state for more direct investment.
A state-owned and operated company focused on meeting Ireland’s essential civil engineering and infrastructure needs would be an enormous asset. It could help provide energy security and keep costs down while helping transform Ireland’s energy and transport system. It would give us the power create the jobs we need now to build a better future for people here.
We need a state-owned construction companies: not just for Roadbridge’s specialties in infrastructure. We also need one for a massive green accommodation building programme. This is how we can help end the energy and housing crises and create a safety net for employment losses if and when big name international capital investment decide to cut back or pull out of Foreign Direct Investment projects here. We can’t hope to influence our future if we can’t control what we are building in the present or how we build it.
People Before Profit is an ecosocialist party that puts planet and people first when it comes to planning. We want good green union jobs and a no-nonsense attitude about directly building our green future. That is exactly what a state-owned construction company could do.
Our future is too important to be left up to the madness of the market.