Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 189: To ask the Minister for Finance the latest returns he has received in respect of progress in the expenditure profile and the profile in delivery of planned outputs from the various subprogrammes within the National Development Plan 2000-2006; and if he will publish a review of the performance of that plan. [4127/07]

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

The most recent information on the implementation of the NDP/CSF 2000-2006 was reported to the NDP/CSF Monitoring Committee at its December 2006 meeting and relates to the period January 2000 to end June 2006. The data reported indicates that some €48.3 billion has been spent on the Plan at the end of June 2006. This represents 85% of original profile for the life of the Plan — for which expenditure can continue up to 2008 in line with EU regulations. The Exchequer & EU contribution to the plan for the same period amounts to €41.8 billion which represents 94% of original profiled Exchequer and EU expenditure for the lifetime of the Plan. This indicates that all demands for expenditure are being met. The final Exchequer and EU expenditure is expected to be ahead of the original profile generally, covering a lower than expected take-up from the private sector.

The NDP/CSF 2000-2006 is implemented through seven Operational Programmes. Performance indicators at programme and priority level are included in the Operational Programme documents and at measure (and sub-measure) level in the programme complement documents. The NDP/CSF Monitoring Committee set up by my Department to monitor progress in implementation of the Plan, examines physical and financial progress at programme and priority level with reference to these indicators. The Committee's most recent progress reports indicate that physical implementation is progressing well with some priorities exceeding their end programme targets already.

In addition to the ongoing monitoring, a mid term evaluation of the NDP/CSF was carried out by the ESRI in 2003. A key finding in this report was that NDP/CSF expenditure over the period 2000-2002 had raised the level of GNP by over 7% above what it would otherwise have been in 2002. The report states that in the long run the level of GNP will be around 3% higher than it would otherwise have been. This represented a real rate of return on NDP/CSF investment of around 14% at that time.

Mid-term evaluations of the individual Operational Programmes were also carried out in 2003 which provides analysis of progress under the programmes and of developments in the external environment. In addition, an update evaluation of the CSF was completed in December 2005 which provides a synthesis of overall CSF progress in both financial and physical terms to end 2004. This evaluation found that "at the level of individual Operational Programmes, tangible results are. . . evident on the ground. In areas such as training, provision of child care places and road investment, the intended outputs are being delivered and these involve increased or improved services and other benefits to users".

My Department has also recently published a progress review entitled NDP/CSF 2000-2006 — Review which highlights some of the key features of the investment under the Plan to date. This review and the evaluations referred to above are available on the NDP website www.ndp.ie, under Publications.