Fianna Fáil will today outline how it will fund its election promises and manage the economy over the next five years with the launch of a major economic policy by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Minister for Finance Brian Cowen.
The publication of the multibillion-euro spending plan will be followed in the next two to three weeks with 15 policy documents which will form the basis of Fianna Fáil's general election manifesto.
Securing Prosperity - the Next Steps Forward will claim that a Fianna Fáil-led government would maintain a large budget surplus over five years. A source said last night that "conservative exchequer return assumptions" would underpin the policy.
Mr Ahern and Mr Cowen will emphasise maintaining a prudent approach to exchequer finances while delivering on a range of tax and spending commitments.
A source said last night that the plan would contextualise the Taoiseach's speech at the party's ardfheis and would represent the real start of its election campaign. "Everything will be costed and put into a five-year budgetary framework. We will be outlining what is affordable, and prudence will be central to everything we will outline.
"We are basing this on the same set of assumptions that underpin the National Development Plan. We will be saying what we outline is well within the range of what is possible."
As outlined at the ardfheis, the document will contain details of Fianna Fáil's tax policy, including its promises to reduce the lower tax rate and PRSI. But it is understood there will be no commitments given on stamp duty reform.
Other promises outlined by Mr Ahern at the ardfheis were 4,000 additional primary teachers, bringing the pension up to €300 a week, 2,000 more gardaí, 2,000 new hospital consultants and €300 million for 1,500 public hospital beds.
Personal health checks, new local injury clinics, reductions in secondary school class sizes and new schools were also pledged by the Taoiseach in his Citywest speech on March 24th.
The party said after the ardfheis that its tax cut proposals would cost €840 million a year over five years, but no other costings were outlined.
Today's document will also contain a commitment to review the regulation of the energy and the telecoms sectors to deal with concerns over rising energy costs.
In the next few weeks the party will release policy documents on health, education, crime, transport, the environment and science and innovation.
The joint Fine Gael-Labour election economic plan will be published on Thursday, several weeks after it was first expected.
The parties had failed to agree on the timing of its stamp duty reform proposals. It is understood that the plan will now not give any commitment on the timing of reform. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said on Friday in Cork that the question of whether stamp duty would be reformed in phases over three years or in one move would be addressed when in government.
Labour had expressed major concern that a three-year phasing would upset the property market and that people would delay buying property until rates were reduced.
The reforms involve abolition of the duty for first-time buyers of second-hand homes worth up to €450,000 and a simplification of rules, reducing the number of rates from seven to three.
The economic policy will also propose cutting the lower rate of tax from 20 to 18 per cent.