Should the construction elements of the National Development Plan be renegotiated? The Construction Industry Federation says no. It has, it insists, the capacity to complete the ambitious plans for road and house building, water treatment and railway upgrades - including Luas - and the development of new growth centres, within the time frame of 2000 to 2006.

The chairman of the National Roads Authority, Liam Connellan, also says no. The NRA, he claims, can deliver the roads programme on time.

But the Institute of Chartered Surveyors has called on the Government to reschedule, claiming construction targets announced in the plan could actually damage the economy.

A spokesman for the institute last week went as far as to say that even attempting to achieve the targets could be damaging to the industry.

The roads building project alone is, essentially, a telescoping of a previous National Roads Authority 21-year road building plan into a seven-year programme. Almost one year on since the launch of this plan, it is looking increasingly unlikely that the State has the planners or the construction workers to carry it out.

The institute's position is supported by Olivia Mitchell, the Fine Gael TD who has been a constant critic of the National Development Plan. According to Ms Mitchell, the Government has always known that the plan could not be completed "but it felt it should try". "The National Development Plan should be spread over nine or 10 years rather than attempting to meet the impossible 2006 deadline," she maintained.

She was particularly critical of the Taoiseach's national sports stadium which she said would soak up limited resources at the expense of other essential infrastructural work.