In fact much of it, such as the new national children’s hospital, had long been in the public arena and were simply subsumed into the the plan.

In recent days and weeks elements such as a new hospital for Cork, funding to develop Metro North in Dublin and a myriad of road networks across the North West also dripped out.

And so the unveiling of the plan, while impressive in its presentation, was far from jaw-dropping in its content.

But optics are also important.

The Cabinet, departmental staff, ministerial advisers and a clatter of Dublin-based journalists made the three- hour trip to Sligo for the grand unveiling.

And with the Taoiseach’s pet project, the Strategic Communications Unit (SCU), cranked into full action, what an unveiling it was.

Akin to an ard fheis, it featured a full stage set-up and not one but two video extravaganzas, as well as a podium jammed full of ministers.

But while the €5m Strategic Communications Unit put on a glitzy display, a series of unfortunate events began just as a background briefing with senior officials and civil servant types was wrapping up early in the day.

After numerous questions on the details of the framework a last hand was raised among the media pack: “Just one quick one, were there any women involved in putting the plan together, out of interest?”

The row of navy suits, perched on a small stage looked at each other.

“Yes, lots... lots... but these happen to be the people who were, who were, leading in the departments... there was lots of gender balance on that,” mumbled a usually unflappable head of the unit, John Concannon, as he looked at the all male line-up.

It was a glaring omission in the week when the Taoiseach had also been questioned for having only men around the table with him when he travelled to Belfast to meet parties involved in the Stormont negotiations.

Journalists were then handed the plan, in the form of two chunky documents containing many aspirations around what the country will look like in two decades time.

Many hacks chose a third, much shorter document, a sort of easy-to-read guide of the plan, to rifle through first.

But on page six the spell-check failed to catch the headline which read: “Suttstainable mobility”.

Project Ireland 2040 is in the words of the Government a “high-level strategic plan for shaping the future growing and development of our country” the proposals will stretch out to 2040.

The plan put simply is an amalgamation of old announcements and a packaging of some new ones.

The plan, provides a sharply presented manifesto to present to the people on the drop of a hat.

And although Leo Varadkar yesterday strongly denied it was a manifesto, it seemed as though the Fine Gael-Independent Government were in election mode yesterday.

Unfortunately it was the little details that tripped them up.

As ministers spoke during a stilted Q&A session with students who clearly had been planted with questions — the projected background provided a hashtag to tweet out — unfortunately it wasn’t the hashtag that the Government themselves was using.

An accompanying website address projectireland.ie also flashed up on the screen, but it brought googlers to a page for the national conference for Ireland’s leading professional project management body — oh dear.

The second of two video packages was polished presentation with ministers giving a sound bite on the long-term plan.

Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht , Josepha Madigan, described the plan as “an absolute game changer”.

After the teething problems around the launch she could have used the catchphrase once used by her rivals: ‘A Lot Done, More to Do.’