Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 28: To ask the Minister for Finance if he has plans to introduce a new development plan to succeed the NDP; and if he has instituted a system for prioritisation of projects for inclusion. [18404/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I will be putting proposals to Government shortly on the issue of a successor to the current national development plan, NDP, which will run until the end of 2006. As the Deputy is probably aware, previous NDPs have been a requirement of the European Commission to enable Ireland to draw down its allocation of Structural and Cohesion Funds. Unlike previous occasions, there is no requirement under the draft Structural Funds regulations for the period 2007-13 to prepare a national development plan.

An important new factor in this context is the introduction of the five year rolling multi-annual capital envelopes in budget 2004. This is a major innovation and provides a medium term financial framework for public capital investment. This gives Departments and implementing agencies relative financial certainty to plan capital programmes and projects over the medium term.

As regard project prioritisation, that is already generally delegated to Departments and agencies which must exercise this responsibility within the programme budget for the areas agreed by the Government and within the framework set out in my Department's guidelines for the appraisal and management of capital expenditure.