€867m allocated for national roads

A total of €867 million will be invested in the National Roads Programme this year, Minister for Transport Pat Carey confirmed today.

This compares with a €1.115 billion investment in the programme last year.

Schemes starting this year include the Belturbet, Longford and Tralee by-passes and the Cork Southern Ring Road Interchanges.

Also scheduled to get under way  are new projects covering the N7/N11 at Arklow, Rathnew and Newland Cross, the M17/18 Gort to Tuam, the N87 Ballyconnell Relief Road and the N4 Downs Grade separation.

Local authorities have also been granted allocations for road improvements and maintenance, which together total over €500 million.

Funding is being made available to pay for a number of inter-urban routes completed last year and for existing Private-Public Partnership projects.

Mr Carey said there was no doubt the expansion of the roads networks across the country had benefited everyone in the State.

However, Fine Gael was highly critical of today's funding announcement. Transport spokesman Simon Coveney said programme funding was now down by 38 per cent compared to two years ago.

“It’s totally unrealistic to expect local authorities to provide an acceptable standard of road surfaces if they are starved of the capital to do so," he said. “This decision will force county managers to make drastic cutbacks in expenditure, not only in road maintenance, but also in other expenditure areas in an effort to finance road repair and resurfacing."