Plane curves of minimal degree with prescribed singularities

We prove that there exists a>0 such that for any integer d>2 and any topological types S_1,...,S_n of plane curve singularities, satisfying $\mu(S_1)+...+\mu(S_n) \leq ad^2$, there exists a reduced irreducible plane curve of degree d with exactly n singular points of types S_1,...,S_n, respectively. This estimate is optimal with respect to the exponent of d. In particular, we prove that for any topological type S there exists an irreducible polynomial of degree $d \leq 14\sqrt{\mu(S)}$ having a singular point of type S.