The Northern Ireland Programme for Government, announced yesterday, will give builders further cause for optimism, as it contains ambitious plans for boosting the North's infrastructure.

Overall, the powersharing Executive intends to spend €27 billion on infrastructure over 10 years. This will include roads, a rapid transit transport system for Belfast, rail upgrades, waste and water treatment projects, and a plethora of public projects. On paper at least, it looks like the Executive intends to avoid the pitfalls encountered by the Government in the South during the course of the last national development plan.

This hit lots of administrative delays, some of them caused by the fact that departments were implementing a six-year plan while operating with one-year spending budgets.

It took the Government three years to spot and rectify this particular glitch.

The Northern Ireland Executive plans on "front loading" its spending, with about one-third of it earmarked for the programme's first three years. The idea is to give the region's infrastructure development a jump start.

The €9 million or so that will be spent over those three years represents a 25 per cent increase in infrastructure spending.