Programme for Gov 2011-2016

dubhthach

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0306/programme_for_national_government.pdf

Infrastructure related bits:

NewERA
The Government will put in place a parallel, commercially-financed investment programme in key networks of the economy to support demand and employment in the short-term, and to provide the basis for sustainable, export-led jobs and growth for the next generation.
Under the NewERA plan, streamlined and restructured semi-States will make significant additional investments, over and above current plans, over the next four years in “next generation” infrastructures in energy, broadband, forestry and water.

These investments – and the accompanying semi-state restructuring process – will be financed and pro-actively managed by a New Economy and Recovery Authority (NewERA), which will absorb the National Pension Reserve Commission.

Subject to finalisation in the National Development Plan, we propose to make additional investments in the following areas:

A New Water Network: The new Government will create Irish Water, a new State company that will take over the water investment maintenance programmes of the 34 existing local authorities. It will supervise and accelerate the planned investments needed to upgrade the State’s inefficient and leaking water network so has proved so unreliable during the recent harsh water conditions.

A Next General Telecoms Network: NewERA will co-invest with the private sector and commercial semi State sector to provide next generation broadband to every home and business in the state. This will be achieved by delivering fibre to the home or kerb for 90% of homes and businesses in Ireland with the remaining 10% provided with high speed mobile or satellite broadband.

A 21st century “Smart Grid”: Beginning with the hand-over of ESB’s transmission assets to Eirgrid, we will create a new ‘Smart Grid’ company with ultimate full ownership and responsibility for the development of Ireland’s electricity and gas networks.

Bio-Energy and Forestry: To accelerate the development of Ireland’s forestry and bioenergies, NewERA will merge together Bord na Mona and Coillte to create a new State company called BioEnergy Ireland to become a global leader in the commercialisation of next
generation bio-energy technologies, including an annual 14,700 hectare afforestation programme.

21st Century Schools

This Government will end the treatment of ICT in education as a stand-alone issue, but will integrate it across education policy. This will begin with merging the National Centre for Technology in Education with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. A new plan to develop ICT in teaching, learning and assessment will be developed. This plan will incorporate the integration of ICT policy across other agencies, such as the Professional Development Services for Teachers, the State Examinations Commission, and Project Maths.

The primary priority for investment in ICT in the immediate term will be the integration of ICT in teaching and learning across the curriculum and investing in broadband development to ensure schools have access to fibre-powered broadband. Investment in ICT will be maximised through pooling of ICT procurement. Greater use of online platforms will be made to offer a wide range of subjects and lessons online, and to enable schools to ‘share’ teachers via live web casts.

These online lessons will be made available through a new Digital School Resource, bringing together existing resources from National Council for Curriculum Assessment, Department of Education and other sources as a cost effective means of sharing expertise between schools.

Building Schools for the Future
This Government will prioritise school building projects in a revised national development plan.

The objective of this Government will be to progressively phase out the inefficient renting of school prefabs. In the interim the negotiation of prefab rental contracts will be part of a reformed public procurement policy to encourage greater value for money, transparency and reduce dependency on temporary accommodation. The devolution of an annual capital budget to schools will be piloted to allow schools to plan for capital projects.

The Department of Education’s central database of school accommodation will be overhauled to ensure a complete inventory of school buildings and associated structures is maintained so deficiencies are easily identifiable.

In areas of demographic growth, Shared Educational Campuses will be the preferred model for future development of educational infrastructure. New schools will be built to grow with their communities and to provide for more interactive, child-friendly model of education.

Local authorities will be required to complete Educational Impact Assessment on residential zoning, to identify potential need for schools.

BluntGuy

Seems like it's taken pretty much wholesale from the FG "New Era" document.

I also noted they would be preparing a new NDP for the period 2012-2019. I'll have to find the reference to that though.

jd

Transport

Transport
We recognise the need to rebalance transport policy to favour public transport.

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A modern high speed transport system is essential to ensure our economic competitiveness. We will support the expansion in range and frequency of high capacity commuter services, which will be subject to cost benefit analysis.
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Funding will be provided on a once off basis to repair damage done to non-national roads due to recent severe weather conditions.
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We will continue to invest in the National Cycle Policy and we will look to extend the Dublin Bikes Scheme across the wider Dublin area and to other cities and integrate the scheme much more effectively with public transport links.
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The rural transport network is vital for rural communities as a reliable and sustainable transport service. We will maintain and extend the Rural Transport Programme with other local transport services as much as is practicable.

BrianD

Very uncommitted on the Transport element.

Looks like the only commitment is to patching the roads and getting us on bikes.