Mr. Graham Doyle:

This is a significant concern for us as a Department. We carried out a significant piece of work which I referred to earlier on, the strategic framework for investment in land transport, SFILT. The SFILT had a few aims. A primary aim was maintaining roads. It is one thing to make a case for opening new roads but it is another to maintain them, although less glamorous. It is critically important because if the maintenance is not carried out over a period of time then the cost of restoration at some point in the future becomes very significant.

We found from that work that if we applied our total Department Vote to maintaining the land transport network, both roads and public transport, it would be about €300 million per annum shy of what would be needed to maintain what we termed the steady state. That is if we applied our entire budget to that end. The shortfall for what we believe we should be providing for the road network compared to what we are providing to maintain it is very significant. It accumulates over time as I think the Deputy was suggesting in her question. That has been a significant concern. That thinking and analysis fed into the capital plan. It was our primary point of argument for the capital plan as well as looking at key roads projects. Primarily, we would have argued very strongly to get up to maintaining our current road network.