Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I agree. It will cost in the order of €400 million. It is an enormous project and is moving ahead, in the planning stage, at pace. Work has also begun on the Atlantic corridor, linking rail and road. The first section of the rail line will link Sligo and Ennis. Work on the road network between Limerick and Galway is also advancing.

These projects are enormously costly. Approximately €1.5 billion is being spent on road infrastructure. All these projects, which are enormously important, are moving ahead apace. It is important that these projects are advanced at planning level in local authorities so that if other projects are delayed, they can be quickly supplemented. This year, for example, the N3 project, to which considerable resources were allocated, should have started and that money must now be used on other projects. I do not know for how long the delay will continue but it is important that other projects are ready to proceed. There is no attempt by Government to save money, the object is to spend the full infrastructural budget so the more advanced projects are, for example, the Clare-Galway road in the west, the better.

The cross-departmental team and the agencies are determined that Transport 21 will be delivered on time. Most projects are now being delivered on time or ahead of time, as well as coming in on budget, with very few exceptions. Of the last 20 projects, only two went slightly over budget and in both cases, for very good reasons — there were many difficulties. A total of 18 projects were within budget and all were delivered ahead of time, bar one. That process is continuing.

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