Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

That is the true picture. These findings are in line with the Fitzpatrick report of August 2002 on the national roads programme and with the April 2004 special report of the Comptroller and Auditor General. The latter's report was based on detailed work by his office over a 13-month period in 2003 and 2004 and traced clearly the reasons for the increase in the estimated cost of the programme in the 1999-2002 period. In summary, this April 2004 report concluded that the reasons for the increase in the cost of the national roads upgrade programme mandated in the NDP from €7 billion in 1999 to €15.8 billion in 2002 were inflation, 40%, failure to cost certain elements, 16%, changes in scope of projects, 20%, and project-specific increases on projects with non-standard elements such as the Dublin Port tunnel, 24%. These reasons for the increase in the cost of the programme in the early years of the NDP have been known and well documented for some time.

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