Mr. Pat Maher:

The reference to public lighting costs was a historical note in so far as since the point ten years and more ago that we were comparing, there have been significant increases in public lighting costs. Our maintenance funding has not kept pace as a proportion of our overall maintenance costs for public lighting. The Senator is correct in what he has said. There are opportunities, and we have implemented and are implementing initiatives on the network that will see a significant reduction in public lighting costs over the coming years. For example, last year we commenced a pilot on four motorway junctions to turn off excess lighting, as compared to our current standards. Our standards for lighting have changed in comparison with practices in other countries. Traditionally, we have lit motorway junctions quite heavily. More recently, that level of lighting has been reduced. We are now looking to implement a lower level of lighting generally across the motorway network. To do so we have had to validate that safety implications were not arising. This is why it started as a pilot. Based on the information we have to date, it is our intention to continue with other motorway junctions. There will be a reduction in lighting and we feel this will be at no cost to motorway safety. This will lead to a significant reduction in energy usage on our motorways.

Separately, we have a project dealing with two-lane roads and bypasses in the north-west of the country, including Mayo, Donegal, Sligo, Roscommon and Leitrim, whereby we will implement energy-saving measures by means of turning off excess lighting, changing the lighting units, the use of more efficient dimming and trimming and reducing the periods when lighting is on. We have a number of ongoing programmes and we will continue to implement them over the coming years. We will make savings in our maintenance budget as a consequence.