THE GOVERNMENT HAS announced that an additional €150 million will be invested in its major capital economic stimulus plan.

The extra funding will go towards school construction and road maintenance and repair, as well as the scheme for retro-fitting local authority houses.

28 school projects will be funded, with around €50 million in new funding matching €40 million of funds previously assigned to the Department of Education.

An additional €50 million will be allocated to road upkeep and development, with 600 kilometres of roadway “to be rehabilitated to a high standard”.

A further €50 million will be allocated to an energy efficiency grant scheme, allowing 25,000 local authority houses to be upgraded so that they can become more energy efficient.

In each case, the funding is additional to the capital budgets already assigned to each Department in the Budget 2013 estimates.

The Department of Education expects 1,200 direct and indirect construction jobs to be created through the school projects, which are in addition to the 275 projects announced last year.

Transport minister Leo Varadkar, meanwhile, said his €50 million would be used to address the damage caused to the country’s roads by two successive harsh winters.

“While resources are limited, there is a risk that roads can deteriorate quite rapidly and are expensive to repair if repairs and maintenance are not carried out,” he said.

It is expected that most of the funding will go towards projects where the design stage is well advanced, with some projects beginning construction by the end of 2013.

Public expenditure minister Brendan Howlin said it was important to continue capital development works despite the financial constraints on the government.

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