Mr. Dominic Mullaney:

There has been a drop. In 2007 national roads got €1.75 billion and that was down to approximately €420 million in 2015. Regional and local roads were getting over €600 million and the initial figure for this year was just around €300 million. There have been substantial drops. The capital programme does envisage an increase again but that will not happen until 2018. There has been analysis of the effects of deferring works on a road. If a road needs repairs and they are deferred five years the cost can increase 18 times. There is international research on all of those matters.

In respect of speed limits there is a lower accident rate on motorways, which has contributed to a fall in deaths, but sometimes speeds go up on the bypassed roads. There is an exercise going on with Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, to better match the speed limits on national roads. That is being done in conjunction with the councils.