03 May 2002
A returned Fianna Fail government would create an arm's-length National Development Finance Agency with responsibility for the financing and contract management of major capital programmes. Funding would be by a mix of bond issues and public-private partnerships.
Immediate priorities of the NDFA would be the building of new health facilities, modernising schools, a roads modernisation programme and public transport projects.
A National Development Plan would be issued by the government's Department of Finance, laying down the projects that the agency would finance.
Spending would be E10bn (£6.3bn) annually, of which the finance agency would raise E2bn (£1.3bn).
Ireland's Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said: 'It is clear that existing ways of delivering major capital programmes are severely limiting… We believe that the time has come for a radical departure.'
PFmay2002