The development plan has the potential to transform the economy. Its scale of ambition is awesome but realistic, given the chronic under-investment in the State's infrastructure.
The plan is innovative in that substantial resources have been allocated to new areas of investment such as affordable housing and research and development. These are fundamental to a competitive economy.
The plan also represents a change in approach by the public sector and Government to the identification of strategic investment priorities. The setting of priorities is based on thorough analysis. For this we should thank the Economic and Social Research Institute for the midterm review of the current operational programmes and, more recently, for their report on national investment priorities, post-1999. Spending departments have also carried out rigorous evaluations of their EU co-financed programmes. Thus, getting value for Irish and European taxpayers' money is much to the fore.
The extent to which the plan's ambitions in the infrastructure area are delivered on the ground will be fundamental to its credibility. There are a number of steps that need to be taken to guarantee that the State's infrastructure deficit is eliminated by 2006. Given the resources available to the Exchequer, this stretch target is an imperative.
The first thing that should be done is to secure planning permission before the end of 2000 for the major infrastructure projects identified, especially the primary roads network and public transport projects. If legal challenges persist, then the High Court should be resourced until the backlog is eliminated. Equally, if An Bord Pleanala, the National Roads Authority or local authorities need additional expertise, this should be provided until all bottlenecks in the planning system are removed. The private sector's expertise should also be tapped, in particular at the design and preliminary stages of planning. The speedy adoption of the Planning Act would help. If the infrastructure deficit is to be eliminated, the Government will also have to change the way projects are put out to contract. If the present arrangements were allowed to continue over 400 contracts would be needed to build the Dublin-Cork motorway. In addition, it would make sense to bundle environment and education projects to achieve greater economies of scale and consequently better value for money and accelerated build. To achieve this, the Government should seek expressions of interest by public tender within the EU. Such an approach could be used, for example, to identify potential investors to design, build, finance and operate the Eastern Relief Road in Dublin and other projects of significant scale.
Public Private Partnerships - the use of private sector expertise and investment in infrastructure projects - have a role to play and this is acknowledged clearly in the plan. However, the minimum target of £1.95bn in PPP investment is but a fraction of the resources that could be deployed if a more courageous approach was adopted.
While this is very much a "national" plan, one should not loose sight of the fact that it has to be approved by the European Commission. Although the element of EU funding is less than 10 per cent of the total investment package, the EU's strict evaluation guidelines will be applied when the plan is examined in Brussels. I would not anticipate any major problems.
Assuming the negotiations with the Commission proceed in a positive way, then within five months the plan will be translated into two Community Support Frameworks, one each for the State's two new regions. The CSFs are contracts between the Commission and the Government which will identify how and where the EU's money will be spent. In addition, Operational Programmes will identify the specific measures to be co-financed. These too will have to be approved by the Commission. Both IBEC and ICTU identified broadly similar strategic objectives in their respective submissions to Government on the plan. The extent to which these organisations share a common analysis of the State's problems and a strategic vision needs to be acknowledged, not least in the context of the current negotiations for a successor agreement to Partnership 2000. The NDP will add significantly to the quality of life of all citizens. The NDP should be seen as one of the central pillars of the next agreement, alongside the NESC strategy and the Economic Convergence Programme that will be published on Budget Day.
The Government is clearly committed to addressing the State's infrastructure deficit. The Exchequer has the resources; the private sector is eager to play its part; and specific investment projects have been identified. But we will not get the first-class quality infrastructure we deserve unless a radical, co-ordinated and new approach to the implement of infrastructure projects is put in place. So, the Taoiseach's chairing of a Cabinet Sub-Committee on major infrastructure projects is most encouraging. Now that the NDP has been published, the private sector should become involved in this Task Force.