Leo set to reveal his €3.7bn poll ‘war chest’

Varadkar to ‘buy’ next election with vote-grabbing projects

MINISTERS will this week unveil plans to spend billions of euro on capital projects in an effort to propel Leo Varadkar back to power after the next general election, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe is putting the finishing touches to a summer economic statement that is expected to allocate up to €3.7bn in additional infrastructure spending over the next four years.

Projects such as the Dublin Metro, the M20 motorway between Cork and Limerick, and new motorways to the north and northwest will be fast-tracked. Mr Donohoe and his predecessor, Michael Noonan, have already travelled to Luxembourg a number of times for talks with the European Investment Bank about low-interest loans. The new finance minister is now ready to produce plans for Public/Private Partnership building plans.

However, most of the larger projects cannot begin until the year after next, a number of Fine Gael ministers admitted this weekend, increasing the pressure on Mr Varadkar to appease Fianna Fáil to retain its support for his Government.

A Cabinet source said: ‘There’s a need to do more on capital quickly. If we look at the policy document that Leo Varadkar compiled during his leadership campaign, these are the first steps towards putting that plan into reality.’

That policy document, first revealed by the MoS, predicted extra large-scale infrastructure projects would cost up to €3.7bn. This is on top of the €5.14bn spending committed to the existing capital investment plan, up to 2021.

A source close to Mr Varadkar said: ‘You’re going to see the bringing forward of Leo’s plan. The mechanisms by which this will be done were discussed at Cabinet last week. The Taoiseach wants to see a new 20-year capital plan. Ireland’s infrastructure lags behind other European countries.’

The Government wants to amend our national debt tTarget to 55% (from 45%) of GDP, which is within European Union rules, to allow greater capital investment.

The summer statement, which will be made this week, is Mr Varadkar’s first budgetary set-piece, and he will also commit to a ‘rainy day fund’. During his leadership campaign, he indicated he would not keep Mr Noonan’s plan to allocate €1bn annually to such a fund.

However, alternative plans are being examined, such as redefining funds held by the Irish Strategic Investment Fund and the NTMA for such purposes.

Varadkar will need to appease Fianna Fáil