In between Supplementary Budget cuts and the setting up of NAMA, it feels somehow incongruous to talk about a National Development ‘Plan’.

Instead of ramping up infrastructure investment as the US, China and Germany have done, Ireland has looked for savings in its capital programmes.

The capital spending cuts will quite clearly have a disproportional effect on different parts of the NDP2. As a more labour-intensive development sector, schools look likely be the least affected part of the original Plan.

The government said it will be putting in place further measures to prioritise the more productive and more labour intensive elements of capital investment.

Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe has said the school building projects already announced to go to tender this year will proceed as planned, despite the scheme’s budget being slashed by €30 million.

The school building and modernisation programme’s original budget allocation for this year for primary and post-primary school buildings was cut from €652.9 million to €613.5 million following last month’s emergency budget.

In January, the Department of Education announced that 10 major school building projects had been re-tendered, while a further 43 new school building projects were announced a month later. The Department of Education said announcements in relation to further capital projects will be made at a later stage.

The reduced capital allocation for public transport will result in some delay in the implementation of a number of projects that are still in the planning stages. However, the capital allocation for national roads is unaffected. This is because all but €50 million of the €1.44 billion is already contractually committed.

In term of healthcare facilities, the HSE Capital Plan was already severely hit in the October 2008 budget. It has taken a further 5% reduction of €20 million in last month’s Supplementary Budget, the combined effect of both is a 28% reduction on capital spending in 2009.

According to Tomas Kelly at Davis Langdon PKS, this will undoubtedly impact on a number of projects which had previously been earmarked for progression in the current year.

The CIF puts the value of new starts in health in the order of a dismal €50 million for this year. Elsewhere the crippled funding situation at Ireland’s local authorities is affecting the rollout of social housing and water improvement programmes, which the CIF recently declared were now “at a standstill” in most cases.

Nevertheless, it is clear there are still projects out there with allocated funding, and agencies such as the NRA are becoming increasingly proactive in allocating and making best use of these funds. However, even projects that have gone to tender are not exempt from the recent cuts.

“Most schemes that are in design/planning stage are being re-examined with renewed vigour to ensure that the most economic design is being achieved,” says Tomas Kelly at Davis Langdon PKS.

“In terms of the market there are great opportunities for clients who are resolute enough to brave the current economic climate. They will undoubtedly get exceptional value for their investment however the rules for success can be somewhat different for working in a recession.

“Securing a low entry price will be relatively easy; converting that into a low exit price will require hard work by all involved."