Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This year, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport requires a Supplementary Estimate of €50 million from the Oireachtas. A technical adjustment of €1 million is also required to reallocate savings between subheads within the Department's Vote No. 23. In June of this year, my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, announced additional Exchequer capital investment of €150 million to be funded through some of the proceeds from the lottery licence and-or State asset disposals. This represented the first phase of the Exchequer element of the 2012 infrastructure stimulus plan. It was designed to create employment while providing much-needed economic and social infrastructure, including schools, home insulation and local authority housing.

One third of the additional €150 million was earmarked for local road maintenance and repairs. This additional €50 million was a welcome boost for the road improvement programme. It allowed road surfaces to be repaired and renewed on an extra 600 km of roadway. People will have seen some of the really good work that was done with this money over the summer and the autumn. The proposed funding is being allocated to councils for use primarily on the restoration of road pavements, by which I mean road surfaces as opposed to footpaths. It is in addition to the €350 million that was allocated for pavement works at the beginning of the year. While resources are limited, my Department is very conscious that two successive severe winters took their toll on the road network. If repair and maintenance works are not carried out according to a regular schedule, there is a risk that roads can deteriorate quite rapidly and roads can become very expensive to repair. This additional funding will help to address the shortfall in this area. I am happy to say that the 2014 budget will see a similar level of stimulus funding for regional and local roads. This is a demonstration of our commitment to addressing this issue.

With regard to the technical adjustment I mentioned earlier, the Commissioners for Irish Lights, who run this country's lighthouses and electronic aids to navigation, have adopted a number of cost saving initiatives in the recent past. These initiatives, which have led to a saving of €1 million this year, include the elimination of major floating aids and their replacement with much more cost-effective aids to navigation, technological improvements leading to greater reliability and cost-effective service provision, a move to a six year buoy refurbishment cycle, cost-effective outsourcing of lighthouse painting and some ongoing lighthouse consolidation projects. These savings will be moved to the National Roads Authority's budget to cover most of the estimated cost of the toll-free initiative for heavy goods vehicles, which I announced over the summer.

The idea arose from concerns expressed here and elsewhere about the large number of HGVs continuing to use regional and local roads in order to avoid tolls and the impact this has on the local and regional road network and its users. HGVs do much more damage to road surfaces than cars and that is particularly the case for smaller roads which are not designed for heavy goods vehicles.

In light of these concerns I asked the National Roads Authority to look at the feasibility of lifting tolls for the vehicles for a full month on one or more motorways across the country to incentivise them to use the motorway network and allow them to determine for themselves the cost benefit in terms of reduced travel times, lower fuel costs and improved safety. Based on the feedback I have received, including the estimated costs involved, I decided to go ahead with the toll-free month on a number of routes - the M1, M3, M6 and Limerick tunnel to see if HGV operators can be persuaded to use the motorways more. While recognising that there is a cost attached to this, it is considered worthwhile to have the opportunity to study traffic levels in detail and assess the impacts for HGV operators and to evaluate the time and efficiency benefits of using these motorways.

The routes were selected with the issue of regular avoidance of parts of the motorway network by heavy goods vehicles in mind together with the cost implications of a broad trial. The trial is still ongoing but there is clearly good uptake on our motorways which, I hope, will prove persuasive in the longer run. The eventual cost of the initiative is a function of the lost toll revenue based on the numbers availing of the free tolling. Anything over and above €1 million being allocated now would be found from existing resources for 2013.

I commend the Supplementary Estimate to the committee.