The Green Party has claimed that the cost of today's NDP announcements are grossly underestimated in economic, environmental and social terms and that the taxpayer, who will be footing a substantial part of this multi-billion euro bill, deserves better.

Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca said: "This is the largest development plan ever to be published. With ever rising rates of inflation and the ESRI warning of poor value for money, together with external factors such as climate change, energy price hikes and global economic growth, this plan is set to cost the Irish taxpayer well in excess of €184bn over the next seven years.

"One serious concern is the willingness of the Government to make ever increasing use of Public Private Partnerships, amounting to €16bn, to fund important capital investment programmes. Ireland is now among the most reliant country in the world on this type of funding mechanism, despite concerns about the accountability and cost efficiency of PPPs.

"While this plan is high on figures and rhetoric, effective planning depends on the ability to deliver. Many of the figures in this NDP are rehashes of Government announcements made over the last 18 months. But let's not forget that this plan comes on the back of the previous NDP, which has failed to narrow the infrastructural and housing gaps in this country.

"Contradictory Government policies undermined the effectiveness of the last NDP - something which may well happen again. The National Spatial Strategy makes no sense when set against the Decentralisation Programme. In this new NDP the Government has also failed to provide the much-needed investment in ICT, in particular for broadband penetration. The NDP allocates €1.4bn for Government building infrastructure programme but only €435m for broadband investment”.

“Finally, climate change is one issue that could cripple our economy if we don't plan now and make the right investments. This includes the continuing priority given to the national roads programme over public transport within this plan serving to exacerbate the car dependent sprawl over which this Government has presided in previous plans. Traffic congestion, poor public transport and uneven provision of infrastructure all threaten Ireland's economic competitiveness. The overwhelming emphasis on the Greater Dublin area for public transport expenditure shows that the Government is still pursuing a radial approach to transport in this country, being most concerned with how people get in, out and around Dublin than in how all citizens in this country can have equal access to public transport”.