Sports campus project gets €42m pledge

The State's commitment to major capital projects next year, including the Sports Campus Ireland facility at Abbotstown Co Dublin, will be met, according to the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy.

Mr McCreevy has set aside almost €42m (£33m) for the sports campus. The swimming pool at the campus is to be ready for the Special Olympics in 2003.

He has given an unambiguous commitment that the money required next year for roads, public transport, water, and housing projects set out in the National Development Plan will be fully allocated in next month's Budget.

Clarifying remarks he made last week, Mr McCreevy said yesterday that the Government did not intend to make any cuts or defer spending on infrastructure which was outlined in the seven-year national plan.

He said it was his intention to devote further resources to the areas which he described as key infrastructural priorities, in the Budget. But he pointed out in his initial remarks to a press briefing in Dublin yesterday that these additional resources would depend on the overall budgetary position.

The Minister said planned spending for the first two years of the national plan was up to date, and the Estimates announced yesterday provided significantly increased capital allocations above the level of inflation for roads, public transport, water, housing, health and education.

Spending on roads and public transport next year is to increase by more than eight per cent to €1.268 billion (£998 million).

The minister said there was reason to expect that inflation, which had been a factor in the construction industry over the first two years of the national plan, would not be as severe in the years ahead.

Exchequer spending on local authority and social housing in 2002 will exceed €804 million, an increase of seven per cent on the 2001 estimate. According to Mr McCreevy, this is on top of an increase of 74 per cent in 2001.

Spending provision for water services will also increase by seven per cent to €450 million with the cumulative increase in provision for water and sewage services over the period 1997 to 2002 now running at €276 million or 160 per cent. The minister also said he hoped to see considerable advances in the coming year.

The spending proposals were however immediately criticised by the Construction Industry Federation as a "missed opportunity. According to Mr Liam Kelleher, the decrease in activity in private sector construction activity could have been compensated for by an increased allocation for National Development Plan construction projects.

Mr Kelleher also questioned the actual increase in capital spending in the construction projects, suggesting it was nearer five per cent than eight per cent. Given inflation, Mr Kelleher said the spend on such projects would remain flat, "or in real money terms decrease".

He said many construction firms had geared up over the past three years, awaiting the rush of construction projects identified in the National Development Plan. "What we are looking at now is a drop in employment in the construction industry unless the minister provides these additional resources he is talking about in the budget," he said.