Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity of this Private Members' motion to address issues relating to the increase in the cost of the national roads programme generally and of specific projects, and to outline the good progress being made in the transformation of our national road network. I am glad to have the opportunity to demonstrate the strength of our record in upgrading the national road network and to outline measures being taken to avoid a recurrence of the underestimation in the early years of the NDP, and avoid cost overruns during the construction stage of projects.

Two aspects of the issue of costs have received coverage recently, namely the increased estimated cost of the NDP mandated upgrade programme overall, and cost overruns on individual completed projects. The increase in the cost of the overall NDP, which occurred in the early years of the programme, was well documented in a report by Fitzpatrick Associates in August 2002 and in a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General in April 2004. The Committee of Public Accounts report of 12 May sets out the findings and recommendations of the Committee of Public Accounts based on the Comptroller and Auditor General's April 2004 report.

I accept and welcome the finding of the Committee of Public Accounts report that the increase in cost can be attributed to the considerable expansion in the scope and number of projects involved, a high rate of construction inflation in the early years of the programme and some cost estimation deficiencies prior to 2000.

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