Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

That transformation has been achieved through the hard work and enterprise of our people, guided and led by the sound economic and fiscal policies pursued by successive Governments.

The brightest beacon for the future lies with the national development plan. When the Government launched this plan, it highlighted the need to tackle the infrastructure deficits that had constrained our potential economic development. That work is well in hand. Over the remaining period of the national development plan we will continue to roll out a very substantial programme of investment in economic infrastructure. We will focus on those priorities which offer the best value for money and promise the greatest economic return. By investing in crucial infrastructure projects, we can augment our productivity, enhance our competitiveness and improve the quality of life.

Future economic infrastructure priorities in the plan include completion by 2010 of the major inter-urban routes linking Dublin with Belfast, Galway, Limerick, Cork and Waterford; significant enhancement of the Atlantic road corridor.

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