Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 80: To ask the Minister for Finance his views on whether a review of the performance of the NDP would now be timely. [13316/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The national development plan, NDP, was subjected to a wide ranging, in-depth and independent mid-term evaluation by the ESRI in 2003. The evaluation found that the NDP has made significant progress towards its objectives of promoting continuing sustainable national economic and employment growth and of consolidating and improving Ireland's economic competitiveness.

It stated that the NDP "will have a sustainable positive effect on competitiveness and the productive capacity of the economy in the long term". In terms of national prosperity, the ESRI has estimated that NDP expenditure over the period under review raised the level of GNP by over 7% above what it would have been had the NDP not been undertaken and, in the long run, the level of GNP will be around 3% higher. The ESRI estimated that this represents a real rate of return on NDP investment of around 14% and this must be seen as an exceptional economic performance by any standards. More generally, the mid-term evaluation endorsed the strategy underpinning the NDP and its continuing relevance.

The performance of the NDP is also subject to ongoing monitoring through the individual operational programme monitoring committees and the overarching NDP/CSF monitoring committee chaired by my Department. There is also a programme of ongoing reviews of different aspects of the NDP which are conducted or commissioned by the NDP/CSF evaluation unit. The mid-term evaluation of the EU co-funded elements of the NDP is being updated as a requirement of the Structural Funds regulations. In the circumstances I do not, therefore, consider it necessary to conduct a further review of the NDP at this juncture.