A £6.7 billion programme for rural development is expected to be included in the £40 billion National Development Plan 2000-2006 to be published this morning.
As part of the rural development measures, £2.4 billion will be aimed at developing non-national roads, water services, forestry and harbours.
Several towns, including Athlone, Sligo, Letterkenny and Castlebar, will be identified as growth centres under the plan. Other towns - or "gateways" - will be identified as part of the new National Spatial Strategy due to be completed within two years.
The plan will be unveiled by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, in Dublin Castle.
It will include a specific package of measures, costing £1.3 billion, to counter social exclusion. About £250 million will be made available for private childcare facilities.
The £40 billion is to be spent under six headings, comprising three national programmes, two regional programmes - one each for the Border, Midland and Western region (BMW) and the Southern and Eastern region (SE) - and one peace programme for the Border counties.
The BMW regional programme will account for slightly more than £1.8 billion while the SE programme will account for £2.5 billion. The Peace Programme will amount to £100 million.
While the operational programme for the BMW region is under £2 billion, overall expenditure in the region, allowing for the national programmes, will be £13.8 billion. The corresponding figure for the SE region is £26.8 billion.
The national programmes are: economic and social infrastructure (£18.4 billion); employment and human resources (£10 billion) and the productive sector (£7.8 billion).
The economic and social infrastructure section includes £2.3 billion for public transport as well as nearly £5 billion for roads and more than £100 million for the extension of electronic communications, largely in the BMW region. About £3 billion is proposed for water and waste water schemes.
Of the total roads expenditure, £1 billion will come from public-private partnerships. These will focus on linking the principal ports, airports and cities.
About £2.2 billion will be spent on improving public transport. £1.6 billion of this is intended for the greater Dublin area, including £500 million for the underground section of Luas.
The £10 billion provision for employment and human resources will cover education and training, skills updating and equal opportunities, with emphasis on return-to-work schemes for the long-term unemployed.
About £3 billion will be contributed by the EU, with between £2 and £3 billion coming from public/private partnerships. This leaves more than £34 billion to be contributed by the Exchequer. This figure has surprised economic commentators, who had expected it to be between £25 and £30 billion.