Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern has rejected claims that the Government's revised capital programme is too limited.
The Government yesterday announced a new €39 billion capital investment plan until 2016 that prioritises major projects such as Metro North and the Dart interconnector but will mean delays for other promised infrastructure projects.
The programme has been broadly welcome by employers groups but criticised by opposition parties.
Mr Ahern today dismissed suggestions from Fine Gael that greater stimulus was needed to boost economic activity and job creation.
Speaking on RTÉ radio this morning, Fine Gael finance spokesman Michael Noonan reiterated his belief that the revised plan was essentially the first phase of the next Budget.
"The announcement yesterday really was that we have a third of our Budget targets accomplished and we'll spend €1 billion less in capital expenditure in 2001 than we did in 2010," he said. "They took the opportunity to package it as a good news story and emphasise the residual amount of the capital programme that's left."
Mr Noonan said the plan could not be described as a stimulus package given that there was to be a reduction in capital spending. He called for further cuts to current expenditure and investing more on infrastructure.
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said Mr Noonan's proposal would mean more pain for taxpayers.
"The reality is that we have to tailor our spending to what's coming in and what yesterday's event was about was trying to provide certainty and confidence for the next few years to investors both home and abroad," he said.
The new capital spending plan, Infrastructure Investment Priorities, was unveiled at the new national convention centre in Dublin yesterday by Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan and Green Party leader and Minister for the Environment John Gormley.
The Taoiseach accepted that spending on the seven-year plan would be substantially less than the previous seven-year plan, the National Development Plan 2007 to 2013 (NDP). That plan had envisaged €75 billion of capital spending, almost twice the amount announced in yesterday’s plan.
Mr Lenihan also confirmed a €1 billion reduction in capital spending next year as part of the Government’s plans for €3 billion in cutbacks in the December budget. Capital spending will be €5.5 billion next year compared to the €10.5 billion earmarked for 2011 in the NDP.
The programme will involve substantial cuts for road building and housing, with similar or slightly reduced spending for school buildings and major hospital and health-sector projects.
The two large-scale regeneration projects in Limerick and Ballymun remain priorities in an overall housing budget that has been substantially reduced.
A number of key projects included in the 2007 programme – the Western Rail Corridor, the new prison at Thornton Hall in north Dublin and the new railway line to Navan, Co Meath – have all been postponed.
However, it was confirmed yesterday that the project to bring all the Dublin Institute of Technology colleges together in one campus at Grangegorman will proceed as planned.
Separately, Fine Gael's Communications spokesman Leo Varadkar has rejected claims that the capital programme will lead to the creation of 270,000 jobs.
Mr Varadkar said the figures quoted are for jobs that will replace positions lost on other capital projects rather than additional jobs. He said in real terms there will be a net loss of 9,000 jobs.
"The Government is trying to pass off a cut in the capital programme and a net loss of 9,000 jobs per annum as a boost for employment or some sort of "stimulus" plan. This is complete codology," said Mr Varadkar.
"The National Development Plan (NDP) has been scaled down by 45 per cent but construction costs have fallen by only 30 per cent. Overall this represents a cut of €13 billion over five years. It would have been possible to sustain 30,000 more jobs every year between now and 2016 had spending only been cut by 30 per cent in line with the fall in tender prices and not by 45 per cent," he added.