The government has introduced a plan called Project Ireland 2040, aimed at preparing for a country with an extra one million people living here and a further 660,000 at work, divided into two segments to cater for the next ten years and for the entire period to 2040.

Project Ireland 2040 is made up of a National Planning Framework, which the government says will shape future growth and development up to 2040 by guiding public and private investment, and a ten-year National Development Plan, which it says will underpin the Planning Framework with an estimated €116 billion worth of public and private investment.

In the document, the government has signalled that every diesel and petrol vehicle on the roads today will be outlawed after 2045, as after that date no NCT Cert will be issued for non-zero emission cars. The government has also declared that it will prohibit the sale of non-zero emission vehicles post 2030.

• Download National Development Plan 2018 - 2027

• Download National Planning Framework 

In Association with

Some of the key points from both elements include:

• Athlone and Sligo are identified as regional centres where economic development should be focused
• Letterkenny, Drogheda, and Dundalk will be prioritised as towns that will benefit from cross-border regional development
• Ambitious growth targets of 50% set for Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford
• Development in Dublin will be focused within and close to the city
• 500,000 new homes will be required up to 2040
• Building at least 25,000 homes a year by 2020, rising to 30-35,000 up to 2027
• Providing social housing for 112,000 households over the next decade
• Extra primary care centres and more residential accommodation for mental health services and people with disabilities
• 2,600 extra acute hospital beds and three new dedicated ambulatory elective-only hospitals in Dublin, Cork and Galway to specifically tackle waiting lists
• €8.4 billion investment in primary and post primary schools, 50 large-scale school projects annually with an additional 15,000 schools places annually
• A new Technological University for the southeast
• €2.2 billion investment in higher education infrastructure, including Public Private Partnership investment in 11 Institutes of Technology
• Second runway for Dublin Airport at a cost of €320 million
• Regional airports such as Knock and Donegal to get increased investment
• The Metro Link connecting Swords and Sandyford via Dublin Airport to be delivered by 2027 at cost of €3 billion
• The DART to be extended to run to Drogheda and Maynooth
• €4.5 billion to be invested in regional and local roads
• €460m motorway to connect Longford and Mullingar
• €500m fund set up for technological innovation
• €1 billion to be invested regenerating rural towns and villages.
• Upgrading energy insulation in 45,000 homes per annum from 2021

The government claims that Project Ireland 2040 could involve investment in infrastructure of almost €116 billion in the ten years to 2027. This will combine €91 billion directly from the Exchequer, as well as nearly €25 billion by state-owned commercial companies.

The government says that average capital investment in the EU over the last 20 years was in the region of 3% of national income, and that under the National Development Plan public capital investment will reach 3.8% of national income (GNI) in 2021 and 4% by 2024, with sustained investment averaging 4% on an annual basis over the period 2022 to 2027.

Regeneration Agency

A €2 billion Urban Regeneration and Development Fund will set out to achieve sustainable growth in Ireland's five cities and other large urban centres, incentivising collaborative approaches to development by public and private sectors.

"A National Regeneration and Development Agency will be established to ensure more effective coordination and management of the development of lands, in particular publicly owned lands within and throughout urban centres across a range of scales, delivering more compact and sustainable growth,” says the document.

To enhance regional accessibility, road networks will be further developed with a particular focus on better access to the north-west. One objective is to complete road linkage between Dublin and most other urban areas and regions, particularly to the northwest which has been comparatively neglected until recently.

The other is to link regions and urban areas, not just to Dublin, but to each other, with special priority to delivering the Atlantic Corridor, with a high quality road network linking Cork, Limerick, Galway and Sligo.

The government has declared that a major objective will be to reverse the trend whereby the Dublin region grows faster than others. The objective is that all three regions, Northern and Western; Southern; and Eastern and Midland which includes Dublin, should grow at comparable rates, as opposed to the long-term trend in which growth and opportunity in Dublin and the wider Eastern and Midland area far exceeds the rest of the country.

As a result, the government hopes that 75% of future population growth will be outside Dublin in the regions and rural areas. A Rural Regeneration and Development Fund of €1 billion will be established to invest in rural renewal to allow towns, villages and outlying rural areas to grow sustainably.

The delivery of the National Broadband Strategy ensuring coverage in villages, rural areas and islands is planned as "a short-term action”.

Another area of emphasis in the plan is the environment and sustainability. Capital investment will be heavily targeted to achieve climate change obligations and reduce carbon and other emissions. These will include energy use upgrades to 45,000 homes per annum from 2021, a further 3,000-4,500Mw of renewable energy, full implementation of the Renewable Heat Support Scheme, a transition to low emission transport, including electric buses for the urban bus fleet, and a target of just under half of the vehicle fleet to be fully electric.

Major infrastructural projects will include the North-South and the Celtic interconnectors, conversion of Moneypoint to produce green electricity, and development of gas infrastructure to support regional and rural development.

A €500m Climate Action Fund will act as the basis for further investment by public and private bodies, focused strongly the transport sector.

And the national water infrastructure is not neglected. Water and wastewater projects will progress across the country, with a new water supply source to be decided and developed for the Eastern and Midland Region, including Dublin.