Irish construction companies lack the capacity to deliver the large-scale road-building projects envisaged in the National Plan, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment and Local Government has heard.

However, the chief executive of the National Roads Authority, Mr Michael Tobin, told a meeting of the committee yesterday the move towards building "very long sections of road" rather than short bypasses is expected to attract international competition into the sector for the first time.

Apart from specialised projects such as tunnelling and bridge-building, the scale of road construction to date had not been attractive to contractors from other EU countries.

"When you're talking about projects of £100 million to £200 million, however, that will bring in international contractors," he said.

Questioned by committee members, Mr Tobin acknowledged there had been "serious breaches" of the rules in recent years in which local authorities drew down money for work which had not been done.

In most cases, this had been "over-zealousness", with officials drawing money in advance to ensure they did not lose out in the allocations. But there had been one "serious in the extreme" case in which a local authority "effectively manufactured" an invoice to get money.

There had been no loss of funds, Mr Tobin added, and reforms had since been introduced to ensure there was no repetition. These included provision for a 1 per cent levy on funds wrongly drawn down by an authority, calculated on the period for which that authority was in default.

In answer to questions from the committee chairman, Mr Jackie Healy-Rae TD (Ind), and from Senator Brendan Ryan (Lab), Mr Tobin said he could not defend the serious delays caused to motorists on the Dublin-Cork route because of resurfacing in Abbeyleix, Co Laois.

Such was the volume of traffic on the State's road network that any major work was liable to cause serious disruption, he said. However, he promised to consider suggestions from the members, including the idea of a move to night work.

Mr Tobin also admitted the NRA had not "done well" on the N2 from Dublin to Derry, a project which involved bypassing three towns in Co Monaghan: Carrickmacross, Castleblayney and Monaghan town. Questioned by Mr Caoimhghin O Caolain, he admitted progress had been slow. But "within the next month or so," he hoped to see design consultants in place for all three bypasses.