Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 71 and 123 together.

As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for overall policy and funding in respect of the national roads programme element of Transport 21. The implementation of individual national road projects is a matter for the National Roads Authority, NRA, under the Roads Act 1993 in conjunction with the relevant local authorities.

In 2007, the NRA completed an updated feasibility study, which built on an earlier 2001 study, that considered, in particular, the costs and benefits of what has become known as the Leinster outer orbital route.

The updated NRA study, which was forwarded to my Department in 2007, finds there is merit in an orbital route linking Drogheda, Navan, Trim and Naas. Neither Transport 21 nor the national development plan provides any funding for such a scheme to be brought to construction in the period to 2015. The Government has already made clear, under Transport 21, that priorities for the roads investment programme, after the completion of the major interurban network in 2010, will be the Atlantic road corridor as well as the improvement of other key national primary routes and the targeted improvement of certain national secondary routes.

The Minister for Finance has indicated his determination to seek to avoid any diminution of the capital provisions already made in the period to 2015, notwithstanding the current economic difficulties. The Leinster orbital route proposal remains an important potential element of our longer-term infrastructural development. My Department will continue to liaise with the roads and planning authorities concerned to ensure that the route options are preserved free of impediment for this potential project.

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