Stimulus package set to be unveiled

The Government will announce a €2bn stimulus package tomorrow but the timeframe for the delivery of the projects involved will be “vague”, a Coalition source has said.

This is because some of the funding for the package will come from the sale of State assets, and no such sales will take place before next year.

Still, the Government is expected to hail the package as a significant step in stimulating economic growth and tackling unemployment.

Yesterday, the Sunday Business Post reported that the flagship element of the package would be the development of the long- mooted new campus for the Dublin Institute of Technology at Grangegorman.

A number of health and road projects across the State will also get the green light. The investment package would be “countrywide”, the source said.

But the timeline will be “vague enough” because of the manner in which the package is being funded.

The money will come from the National Pension Reserve Fund, the European Investment Bank, and the proceeds of asset sales.

However, it will be next year before asset sales begin, with the Government due to provide “progress reports” in the next six months to the troika on the steps being taken to prepare for the process.

The investment package is one of a series of announcements expected by the Government before the Dáil rises for the summer recess at the end of the week.

The Cabinet is expected to consider an array of memos tomorrow, and give formal sign-off to issues ranging from a freedom of information overhaul to confirmation of the site for the National Maternity Hospital.

Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin, meanwhile, is also set to bring a memo to Cabinet on the reform of public service allowances.

Some 800 allowances are available across the public service, costing some €1.5bn a year, and the Government is anxious to cut their number and cost.

Mr Howlin asked each department to present business cases for the allowances under their aegis.

They range from a €444- a-year clothing allowance for staff in the Government press office to school fees for the children of Department of Foreign Affairs staff posted overseas.

Mr Howlin will outline in the memo which allowances his department believes should be kept, cut, or changed. But while the memo is due to go to Cabinet, it is unclear if it will be discussed given the volume of other business on the schedule.