A £400 MILLION package of tax reductions and reliefs, to be introduced in a November budget, is the main feature of the Fianna Fail/PD economic plan.
Mr Bertie Ahern and Ms Mary Harney will today approve details of the five year programme, refined over the past week by Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats.
Northern Ireland will figure prominently on Mr Ahern's early agenda. In that regard, he and his advisers will meet a delegation from the SDLP, led by Mr John Hume, in Dublin tomorrow to assess prospects for political progress.
The meeting is regarded as particularly important in light of the instability threatened by Drumcree and the marching season. Mr Ahern will be anxious to hear of any progress made in talks between Mr Hume and the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, aimed at averting inter communal tensions.
A meeting with the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, should take place a few days later, when Mr Ahern is again expected to press for an IRA ceasefire.
The broad outline of the programme for government emerged during the course of the general election campaign as the two parties moved closer together and, two days before polling, the shape of the next Budget was outlined in a joint statement by the parties.
It will involve the introduction of a 20 per cent rate for the first £2,000 of taxable income (£4,000 for a married couple); a 1 per cent drop in the 48 per cent tax rate and a 1 per cent cut in employee PRSI charges, along with allowances for childminders, the long term unemployed and pensioners.
The programme will range across major policy areas, with commitments to address aspects of crime, drug abuse, the prison service, social exclusion, unemployment, health, education and the public service and other issues. But it will contain no surprises and is likely to be broadly aspirational in the longer term, according to party sources.
Following its endorsement by the party leaders, the document will be referred to separate meetings of the Fianna Fail parliamentary party and the PDs' general council, on Thursday night, for formal ratification.
Mr Ahern and Ms Harney are expected to have a brief discussion about the composition of the next government and the share out of portfolios, but details will not be made public until shortly before the Dail elects a new Taoiseach on June 26th.
Ms Harney is likely to receive the honorary title of Tanaiste and appointment to an economic ministry. Two junior ministries, one allowing access to Cabinet, will go to her colleagues, along with nominations to the Seanad as "Taoiseach's nominees".
In filling the 13 vacancies that remain to him in Cabinet, Mr Ahern will have to choose between colleagues with long experience and the brighter newcomers. And he was said to be only turning his mind to the problem at the weekend.
In that regard, Mr Ahern appeared to lean towards experience last week when, following a meeting of his front bench, he chose to be photographed with them all on the steps of Leinster House.
Present were Ms Mary O'Rourke, Ms Sile de Valera, Mr David Andrews, Mr Ray Burke, Mr Brian Cowen, Mr Charlie McCreevy, Dr Michael Woods, Mr Michael Smith, Mr Joe Walsh, Mr Noel Dempsey, Mr Dermot Ahern, Mr John O'Donoghue, Dr Jim McDaid and Mr Micheal Martin. It was a definite attempt to steady nerves as Mr Brian Lenihan, Mr Martin Cullen, Mr Michael O'Kennedy, Mr Tom Kitt, Mr Chris Flood and Mr Eoin Ryan knock at the Cabinet door.