Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

A fair assessment would say that my Department received a major contribution from the Exchequer in Transport 21 and we have laid out €34.4 billion. In a perfect world with no competing demands from other Departments, one might be able to take all the State's resources and put them into infrastructure, but that is not the case. We have outlined a major investment programme in a range of areas, specifically in roads, over the next few years.

There is no doubt that the added capacity we can get through accelerated delivery of roads throughout the country has been enhanced by the availability of PPP projects to us. Many Deputies from both sides of the House ask me to speed up the delivery of their projects and are open to their delivery as a PPP if it means they can be moved up in the programme. Even businesses from local areas have made the same case because they think advancing and accelerating these projects delivers an economic benefit to everybody, even with a toll, rather than waiting six, seven or ten years to get the project. It is built into the programme. Everybody accepts that our share of the taxpayers' contribution to the Exchequer is massive.

The Deputy raised an interesting question on diversion rates and it is important to put this on the record. The main cause of diversion from toll roads is gridlock.

See this speech in context