Quality of Irish Infrastructure

From Keith Martin’s blog
http://www.keith.gs/2008/10/ireland-22nd-most-competetive/

In the category of ‘Quality of Overall Infrastructure’ we rank 64th in the world. 64th! 64th out of 134 countries. Our infrastructural quality ranks behind Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Azerbaijan, Jordan and Jamaica. We are one of the richest countries in the world (as measured in GDP) and,yet we still trail behind Guatemala, a country 21 times poorer.

Quality of Roads: We rank 70th – behind even Georgia. With a mean score of 3.5, we are closer to bottom ranking Mongolia (1.4) then we are to top ranking France (6.7).

Quality of Railroad Infrastructure: We move a little bit up the rankings on this one – coming in 50th.

Quality of Port Infrastructure: But then we fall back down – all the way to 64th (we own 64). This is particularly dismal given that over 90 percent of our exports go through our ports; and we’re an exporting nation. We even rank behind Zimbabwe and they’re landlocked! (They rank higher because they still have better access to South African ports and any inland waterways.)

Quality of Air Transport Infrastructure: We rank a little better on this one – 46th – though with Shannon and the regional airports coming under pressure it remains to be seen if we can maintain this ranking in the years ahead.

Quality of Electricity Supply: this is our best infrastructural ranking: 29th. This measures interruptions and voltage fluctuations. This is a considerable achievement given that the Government National Development Plans don’t provide investment into our grid. This investment has come from the ESB, paying for it out of their own resources (and, so, having to pass it on to consumers which makes it a regressive investment levy).

Full report
http://www.weforum.org/documents/GCR0809/index.html