This year’s Budget aims to deliver £87.4m of capital expenditure from a £300m programme of works over the next five years.

Of the £87.4m figure, £32.1m is earmarked for infrastructure, £10.7m for replacement assets, £21.6m for the public estate, £11.1m for IT and £11.9m for contingencies.

But one major capital scheme is notable for its almost complete absence from the pages of the Budget Pink Book.

There has been much criticism at perceived delays in the project to build a much-needed replacement to Castle Rushen High School.

The only reference to the scheme in the Pink Book is for a further £1.6m, on top of a similar figure last year, for a master plan in a table entitled ‘Design and Feasibility’.

These are schemes that have received funding approval for departments to draw up fully scoped and costs business cases.

Treasury Minister Dr Allinson insisted: ‘I am committed to this project but need to finalise a realistic timeline.

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‘We’ve actually decided on the way forward. The budget is there - it’s not in the Pink Book at the moment because we need to go out to get the design right, put it through planning and get it costed and then it will be coming through as a capital bid, hopefully this financial year.

‘I want to see that developed. It is one of my key priorities being a previous education minister. For the last decade we’ve been saying it needs to be done and it should be delivered. I want to be part of that process that actually does that in this administration,.

‘It’s unacceptable not just to the people of the south but to the people of the island in general - building a new school in the south of the island is an investment in the children of this nation, it’s an investment in the future of this nation and should be absolutely key.’

Dr Allinson added: ‘There is a lot of impetus behind it. We are really trying as much as we can to learn the lessons of, for instance, the Liverpool landing stage to make sure that we get the contract right, the price baked in right and we build what is needed for that community, what is needed for the island but within the cost that is allocated by Tynwald.’

He said his Budget would also aim to increase capacity at primary schools including Ballasalla and Henry Bloom Noble.

Dr Allinson added: ‘We are putting over £800,000 into putting a new roof on St Ninian’s that they need but actually doing it right so we’ve got the right insulation and solar panels on to drive down the operating costs.’

Some £5.3m will be invested in the Transformation Fund and directed towards digitising and automating processes to make government more efficient. Some £2.5m of this will come from reserves and the remaining £2.8m from general revenue.

A government spokesman said: ‘Progress will continue on the project to replace Castle Rushen High School and provide modern and appropriate educational facilities in the south of the island.

‘A total of £3.2m has been made available over the past two years to bring the project forward in terms of design and feasibility, with the Department of Education, Sport and Culture working in collaboration with the Project Management Unit of the Department of Infrastructure.’