Over the next seven years about £40.6 billion will be injected into the economy under the plan - a 300-page document which the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, described as the "most ambitious plan since independence".
Ms Harney is probably right in respect of the sheer amount of money involved.
Of the £40.6 billion in spending planned up to 2006, almost £34 billion will come from the Exchequer.
The European Union will provide £4.75 billion and a minimum of £1.9 billion is expected from projects involving partnerships between the public and private sectors.
A further £6.5 million is likely to come from the private sector in so-called "matching funds".
This plan does not include such projects as Tallaght Hospital or Dublin's light rail system, which grabbed the headlines for the 1994-99 version. However, great emphasis is given to infrastructural projects, with some £21 billion to be spent on roads, public transport, housing and capital developments in the health services.
Almost £11 billion is to be spent over the next seven years on employment and human resource projects to tackle social exclusion and the problems of long-term unemployment. Under the heading of the productive sector, about £8.5 billion will be allocated to research and development and marketing schemes.
Unlike its predecessors in 1989 and 1993, the latest plan is not built around massive inflows of money from the European Union. Indeed, the declining influence of EU Structural Funds is evident.
Under the 1994-'99 plan the EU contributed almost £40 for every £100 in proposed expenditure. This time around the EU figure has fallen to £12 for every £100 of national development expenditure.
EU cohesion funds will dry up completely in 2003, when the Republic is predicted to become too wealthy to be eligible for such largesse. As the Taoiseach said yesterday, the 2000-2006 National Development Plan will be largely financed from "our own resources".
If there is a central theme it is in the warning that the capacity constraints now so evident across the economy must be tackled. The message is bluntly stated: "Ireland has a significant infrastructural deficit, which threatens to inhibit achievement of our economic and employment potential."
With the problems of getting people to fill the available job vacancies, the plan accepts that GNP growth is likely to slow down a yearly level of five per cent from 2000 to 2006.
In the 1993 plan there was a commitment "to improve the reliability of the transport system by removing bottlenecks, remedying capacity deficiencies and reducing absolute journey times and journey time variance".
Despite the capital spending over the last seven years, gridlock remains a daily fact of life in most urban areas.
Against this background it is not surprising that almost a third of the money available for infrastructure projects will be spent on transport-related schemes. These will include a major road-building programme with about £4.7 billion for national road projects.
The plan pledges that by 2006 Galway, Limerick, Cork and Waterford will be linked to Dublin by roads of motorway or high-quality dual-carriageway standard. The Dublin Port Access Tunnel and the M50 motorway are also due to be competed by 2006.
Road developments will also benefit from public-private partnership projects announced by the Government earlier this year. The plan sets a minimum target of £1.85 billion for such partnership, although it adds the stipulation that further consultation is required.
Among the developments which could benefit from the PPP approach are new bridges over the Shannon, Suir and Liffey in Limerick, Waterford and Dublin respectively.
About £400 million will be spent on the railway network, while proposals for commuter rail services between Cork and Midleton and Limerick and Ennis are to be "evaluated". However, given that the Luas system for Dublin was announced in the 1993 plan and will not be up and running until 2003, potential commuters may have a wait.
There is a commitment to build an additional 35,500 local authority houses over the next six years. Three in every four of these will be in the southern and eastern region.
The plan proposes a diverse set of capital projects in the health area. The £2 billion spending on health will provide for people with intellectual disabilities, the elderly and the mentally ill, and will upgrade health centres.
Almost half of the £11 billion committed under the employment and human resources heading will be directed towards long-term unemployment. Along with tackling educational disadvantage, this money will seek to ensure that workers have the skills required by employers.
An objective is to get long-term unemployment down to two per cent by the end of next year. In addition, a £250 million childcare package is proposed to counter social disadvantage and improve the employment options of those in deprived areas.
The plan commits £8.5 billion to projects in the manufacturing, agriculture and internationally-traded services sectors. This will be directed at enhancing research and development and improving the marketing of Irish goods and services abroad.
Two new regional structures will be set up to meet EU requirements for allocating structural funds. The southern and eastern region, where 73 per cent of the population resides, will get just over £27 billion, while the balance of £13.6 billion will go to the border, midland and western region, which has 27 per cent of the State's population.