Mr. Fred Barry:

There is no requirement that the physical construction work should start. Therefore, one could have An Bord Pleanála's approval for a project and one would be required to exercise the CPO and start compensating landowners within a time period commencing within the 18 months or so, but it is fairly open ended as to when construction would start. There is a benefit in having projects pass through the planning process, even before the money is made available to build them, in that there is not such a huge time lag because it triggers a series of events. The procurement process for a major design-build project takes about 12 months; therefore, one has to have projects through the planning process. When people talk about projects being ready to go, it means being ready to go in about 12 months time. It is a long process, but that is the position.

As regards lighting, like everybody in the State, the NRA is examining ways to save on energy costs. We have investigated a range of alternative initiatives to make energy savings on the road network. We are implementing a number of pilot schemes with four local authorities to assess the benefits and their suitability for broader application across the network. We are using communications technology to allow control and monitoring of lighting to deal with the issue of lights being on 24 hours a day. We are also examining the use of LED lighting and a range of other measures, including wind power generation. From these will come measures that will reduce energy usage on the motorway network. It is a slow process because one must undertake a pilot project and examine the results. Many measures that reduce energy usage come with a high capital cost and very long payback periods. At a time when we are struggling to find money to carry out more fundamental work, we will probably be slow to divert significant capital to such measures.