THE GOVERNMENT'S decision to engineer savings of €1 billion on its public spending next year includes savings of more than €300 million on its planned capital spending in 2009, The Irish Timeshas learned.
Capital spending by the Office of Public Works has been trimmed by €105 million, following a reduction of €75 million in its capital allocation for the current year.
These savings are to be achieved principally by ceasing all further purchases of land or accommodation for the decentralisation programme.
As a result, it effectively signals that decentralisation will proceed no further.
However, it is understood that, where land, sites or buildings have already been acquired by the State, existing decentralisation plans will be completed.
The National Development Plan (NDP) 2007-2013 allocated €833 million in investment resources to the decentralisation sub-programme for the provision of new offices for over 50 participating Government departments and State agencies.
The sub-programme envisaged the relocation of over 10,300 public servants to 58 towns outside Dublin.
The second major area of capital savings identified is the deferral of the Gateways Innovation Fund Programme.
Capital savings of €100 million will be achieved in 2009 as a result of this deferral in addition to the already announced savings of €40 million in 2008.
The nine gateways - Dublin, Cork, Limerick/Shannon, Galway, Waterford, Dundalk, Letterkenny/ Derry, Midlands and Sligo - are the centrepiece of the National Spatial Strategy, launched in 2002.
The Gateways Innovation Fund was set up on a pilot basis for the years 2008-2010 "to stimulate and reward joined-up thinking at local and regional level" and was assigned an initial exchequer allocation of €300 million for the pilot period.
In all, capital savings amount to €310 million in 2009, with the identification of the remaining €105 million in capital savings yet to be decided.
In addition to capital savings of €310 million, a further €609 million is to be saved in 2009 through the introduction of efficiency measures in Government departments and State agencies.
The largest slice of these savings is the €250 million to be saved in 2009 through the Government's requirement that pay bills of Government departments, State agencies and local authorities be reduced by 3 per cent by end-2009, although frontline personnel are exempted.
Other efficiency measures include the planned saving of €135 million on external consulting, advertising, public relations and procurement costs during 2009.
An additional €177 million in savings is to be extracted through efficiency gains, primarily in State agencies.
The remaining €47 million in efficiency savings is to be generated by central government itself.
The third strand of the savings programme for 2009 is classified as policy savings, amounting to €81 million.
The principal elements include savings of €50 million from cutting social welfare fraud and a further €26 million in savings on the Fás apprenticeship scheme.
In all, the capital savings of €310 million, the efficiency savings of €609 million and the policy savings of €81 million add to a round savings total of €1 billion next year.