Opposition reaction: The main Opposition parties last night called on the Government to accept responsibility for the flaws highlighted in the Economic and Social Research Institute report on the National Development Plan.
But while Labour's finance spokeswoman, Ms Joan Burton, accepted the ESRI's critique of the Government's performance, the party's education spokeswoman, Ms Jan O'Sullivan, said aspects of the report were "ludicrous".
Ms Burton said the report contained "harsh" if diplomatically expressed criticism of the Government. "Basic analysis of key projects is often absent; there are heavy cost-over runs, and project delivery is delayed," she said.
"What the ESRI does not mention is the underlying management problem that no Government Minister will take responsibility for the plan."
While sustained investment in the economy was required, Ms Burton accused the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, of cutting back on expenditure.
She said Mr McCreevy should accept he was responsible for the overall management and funding of the Development Plan.
Ms O'Sullivan said the ESRI's call for cuts in capital investment in schools should be rejected outright. "To suggest cutting back on capital spending on school buildings at a time when hundreds of school buildings are damp, decrepit and stalled on the school building programme is beyond comprehension."
Ms O'Sullivan went on: "The ESRI's arguments for cutting back on spending are utterly unconvincing at a time when more resources were never more necessary. Schoolchildren have borne the brunt of educational cutbacks and the Minister for Education has starved schools of funding for very essential repairs."
Fine Gael's finance spokesman, Mr Richard Bruton, said the "sobering reading" in the report amounted to a fair an objective critique of the plan. The report pointed to poor project selection, poor cost control, vast overruns and a failure to properly evaluate expensive redesigns.
"The competence of Ministers is clearly in question. It is not surprising that we have had 'leaks' and 'pre-buttal' from Ministers," he said. "Clearly the Government wants to avoid accountability."
Fine Gael's transport spokesman, Mr Denis Naughten, said the project planning and approval divisions of Government Departments should be separated from the expenditure monitoring and payment divisions.
"At the moment the people that approve and supervise the project are the same people that will allocate the resources."
Mr Naughten said the NDP was more like a slush fund for consultants than a plan to develop infrastructure.
