Much has been done to improve our primary routes, but Ireland comesthird last in the EU table of competitiveness for transportinfrastructure. Lloyd Gorman reports
New figures from Eurostat, the EU's equivalent of the Central Statistics Office, show that Ireland's motorway infrastructure increased dramatically between 1990 and 1999. While 10,000 km of new motorways were built across Europe in that period, an average increase of 25 per cent for each country, the density of the Irish network grew almost fourfold, from 26km2 to 94km2.
Like Portugal, Greece and Finland, Ireland recorded such a dramatic change only because its motorway density had been low in 1990. "In 1987, for example, the length of Ireland's motorway network was 0.1km per square km, giving Ireland a ranking of last out of 27 OECD countries," says Peter Malone, chairman of the National Roads Authority.
The boom years of the Celtic Tiger had a profound effect on motorway construction and management. Economic growth was three times the EU average and Ireland remained at the top of the OECD growth league for five years. As a result the country saw substantial foreign investment, population growth and greater numbers of vehicles on the road than ever before. Many commentators and agencies, such as the National Competitiveness Council pointed out that the strength and vitality of the economy was directly linked to the ability of the road infrastructure to facilitate labour mobility, the transit of traded goods and services and regional development.
"Failure to address these inadequacies in a timely and effective manner would have serious implications for the future growth of the economy, for employment levels, social progress and the quality of life of all residents of the State," adds Mr Malone.
Established in 1994, the NRA was charged with responsibility for delivering and managing improvements in the country's networks. While the Eurostat report shows significant progress has been made, a lot more work remains to be done. The 2001 annual report from the National Competitiveness Council reveals that Ireland still ranks only 13th out of the 15 EU member states under the competitiveness score for transport infrastructure. "This reflects a low density of rail infrastructure, very little rail electrification, a medium density road network and an underdeveloped motorway network," says Malone.
There have been improvements for motorists but more remains to be done, explains AA spokesman Conor Faughnan.
"We've improved all the way up to bad, from where we used to be," he says. "There have been considerable progress but we still have a long way to go. We don't have a continuous network in place and what we do have has been built piecemeal."
Faughnan likens the bottleneck problems faced by many motorists to pushing a bubble in wallpaper. "The construction of relief roads and by-passes around many small towns and villages on the inter-urban routes has helped remove certain blockages but only for them to reappear further down the road.
"A typical car journey to Cork from Dublin in 1990, for example, would have taken four hours and meant dragging yourself through Naas and Newbridge, which were notorious bottlenecks, as well as Portlaoise and Glanmire. But now with by-passes around these centres a motorist can cover the same journey in less than three hours," he adds.
The recently opened €11 million relief road at Enfield village, in Co Meath will also remove another infamous headache for drivers. The 2.5 km stretch of new carriage, which will eventually become a part of the proposed Dublin to Galway motorway, is expected to cut 30 minutes off that journey time.
Mr Faughnan says that the National Development Plan, if completed on schedule, would mean that further and substantial improvements would be made on all the inter-urban routeways but that secondary roads are still "far from addressed.
"Good progress may have been made but we will never reach a situation where we can pare back on the investment in the road network as there will always be a continuing need for improvement. The quality of our roads is still very much a work in progress and we are a long way from the EU average, especially those countries in northern Europe".
Much of the money for the capital road building programme has come from EU sources, such as the structural and cohesion funds as well as other specialised programmes such as INTERREG.
According to the European Commission vice-president for transport and energy, who announced a White Paper on transport policy late last year, "Europe will be rapidly threatened with apoplexy at the centre and paralysis at the extremities,if nothing is done."