Political reaction:Fine Gael and Labour said last night they would look again at elements of the National Development Plan if they ended up in government after the election.
Both parties, along with the Greens and Sinn Féin, yesterday gave a cool response to the plan, claiming it was a repackaging of projects already announced. They accused the Government of not properly costing its proposals.
Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton said in a statement that Fine Gael in government would impose "a new framework", designed to deliver value, on the NDP. The party would publish cost-benefit appraisals before committing taxpayers' money.
He said that while the party wouldn't draw up a new development plan, if some projects "didn't pass the muster" on cost-benefit analysis then they would go. "Obviously we would have different priorities in government. For example, we don't agree with the development of private hospitals."
He said Fine Gael would implement "a gateway system" to ensure projects had been robustly tested and that responsibility had been pinned.
He said the plan would cost €120,000 per family over the next seven years, yet there was no guarantee that the Fianna Fáil/PD Government would achieve value for money with that enormous sum.
Labour's finance spokeswoman Joan Burton said the party, in government, would evaluate and debate the content of the plan constructively and would be "prepared to carry through whatever elements of the Fianna Fáil/PD plan that are in the national interest and are socially just and equitable".
However, Labour had produced detailed costed proposals for investment in public transport, roads, hospitals, schools, childcare, community infrastructure, life-long learning and cultural and sporting infrastructure, she added.
"When in government with a new electoral mandate, this will be converted into a national plan in agreement with our government partners with full regard taken of the real state of the public finances and the real capacity of taxpayers to fund new or enhanced spending programmes."
Asked if this meant Labour would be prepared to change the current plan if in power, she said it would.
The Green Party claimed the cost of the NDP announcements were grossly underestimated in economic, environmental and social terms and that "the taxpayer, who will be footing a substantial part of this multibillion-euro bill, deserves better".
The party's finance spokesman Dan Boyle said only a complacent government would plan over such an extensive period and then hedge the plan's performance on international market forces.
He said the climate change strategy had resulted in no attempt to reduce real carbon emissions in the 2007 budget. Instead the Government had effectively decided to buy its way out of the problem with €270 million of taxpayers' money.
Sinn Féin finance spokesman Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said much of the plan was a repackaging of previous commitments. It "lacked the imagination and vision for the future implied in the title of the plan, Transforming Ireland - A Better Quality of Life for All".
He welcomed the measures in respect of all-Ireland economic development, but said that they did not go nearly as far as Sinn Féin had hoped.