The National Development Plan being prepared by the Government will involve spending of £33.4 billion on the economic and social development of the State over the next seven years, The Irish Times has learned.
The general strategy for the plan - the largest in the history of the State - was approved by the Cabinet yesterday. Ministers will now discuss specific allocations with the Department of Finance before the final version is agreed and submitted to Brussels for EU approval by mid-October.
Of the money, £13.69 billion is to be spent on economic infrastructure with £8.26 billion going on employment and human re sources, £7.79 billion on the productive sector and £3.55 billion on regional development.
The size of the plan comes as a surprise as most commentators had predicted that it would cost between £20 billion and £25 billion. However the plan includes spending in areas which have not been traditionally included in a national development plan such as social housing, health and education, which together amount to some £7.5 billion.
The figure represents an average annual increase of 13.2 per cent over 1999 spending on the last plan, according to a memorandum for government which was initially prepared some weeks ago for a Cabinet discussion which was postponed.
Just £3.4 billion of the proposed spending will come from EU Structural and Cohesion Funds, £1.65 billion will come from Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) with the remaining £28.35 billion coming directly from the Exchequer.
The spending on infrastructure will include £4 billion on national roads, £3 billion on social housing, £1.4 billion on capital spending in health, £2.08 billion on public transport, £2.2 billion on water and waste water treatment and £246 million on energy and telecommunications.
The memorandum suggests the Government may yet reverse its decision of last year to put the Luas system underground in the city centre. It proposes no money to build the underground section of the Dublin Light Rail. It also expresses concern at the escalation in the cost of Luas.
The memorandum envisages £1 billion worth of spending on roads under the Public Private Partnership scheme, with private operators operating tolls on at least some of these. 100 million and urban and suburban public transport (300 million).
Public transport projects in Dublin include integrating existing suburban rail lines including a Heuston to Connolly Station connection, the Arrow and DART services and the proposed LUAS.
New rail links from Dublin City to Dublin Airport and to Navan are also being evaluated, as is a new rail line east of the loop line in Dublin City. £500 million is proposed for spending on the development of mainline rail services, with £130 million for other regional transport development.
A new spending category - employment and human resources - will consolidate spending on various education and training measures in one budget. It will involve spending £5.78 billion on training and active labour market measures, and £2.9 billion for education measures including programmes to deal with early school-leavers.