National Development Plan could cost £8bn

Almost £4.7 billion (€6 billion) was included for infrastructural investment in the National Development Plan at 1999 prices, but with inflation in the construction industry running at 15 per cent per year, the final amount could be more than £8 billion if adjusted for inflation.

The spending on public transport in the Dublin region was in the order of £2.2 billion at 1999 prices, a figure which included provision for new buses and the Luas system.

Iarnr≤d ╔ireann is due almost £1 billion (€1.27 billion) under the National Development Plan. Much of it is to go towards completing the rail safety programme, which began some years before the National Plan and which was initially costed at £450 million (€571 million) but which insiders said yesterday was now likely to cost about £600 million (€762 million).

Major projects which Iarnr≤d ╔ireann has already suggested are vital to its capacity enhancement plans include the resignalling on the central corridor between Pearse Street and Connolly Station in Dublin, and the doubling of the twin-tracks through Co Kildare to allow the separation of inter-city and commuter rail links.

While investment in carriages and new rolling stock is under way, it is understood Iarnr≤d ╔ireann was concerned about delivery of the full investment as early as last spring.

A spokesman for the Minister for Public Enterprise said yesterday that the department had "heard nothing" about any cuts, but he added that the Minister was preparing plans for the first phase of the Dublin Metro - the city centre to the airport section - to bring to Cabinet for approval within the next few weeks.

There was speculation yesterday that one likely area where savings could be achieved was in the proposed Dublin to Waterford motorway. It was identified in the National Development Plan, but not included in the costings.

The cost of the road, the route of which was only recently identified, is more than £0.5 billion. From the beginning, the road was never scheduled to make it to completion within the 2006 time scale and given the local opposition, sources suggested the Government might be tempted to put the project on hold.