Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will respond to the points made by Deputy Ellis. Of the €160 million, €40 million is stimulus funding and the balance of the funding has been made available from savings in other Departments or in relation to how the economy has performed. Specifically, the Deputy asked about where the money for roads will go. Some €20 million of the roads money will be for local and regional roads. The money will be allocated to local authorities or, for the larger national roads, through the National Roads Authority, NRA.

I appreciate Deputy Ellis making the point about Newlands Cross.

The main contractor on Newlands Cross was an Irish company called BAM construction, which I understand is based in Cork, in Deputy McCarthy's county. This project came in five months ahead of schedule and for its entire duration all of the laneways and roads through which traffic flowed were kept open. There were six lanes of traffic open continuously while that work was taking place. It is a real credit to how the project was managed and the company itself in the way that was discharged.

The Deputy correctly identified that the Road Safety Authority will be self funding. The reason that is happening is the RSA will be retaining the revenue it raises through the operation of NCT centres and driver licences in the future.

The Deputy's final question concerned Metro North and transport projects for the future. I have put it out for public consultation and would be very happy to engage with the committee on this, as I think would be the other bodies involved in this. As the Deputy will know, that part of our city currently has a very young population and it also has significant future development potential because of the amount of brown and greenfield sites that are out there. It is really important that we plan for that and begin the work now. One of the options is a proposal for a changed Metro North to reflect where the economy will be in a few years' time. When I make a decision on the lead option next year, I will begin work to try and secure funding for that within Government, because until we know what the project is and how much it will cost I cannot secure funding for it, and in order to secure funding I will look at all of the different options that will be available. I am very mindful of the fact that it is not funded now and there are many other competing demands for that money at the moment.