Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)

I can understand why there will be less money to spend on roads in the next couple of years. I would be the first to admit that people from less well-off sectors of society are probably more in need of the money available. I wrote to the Department two months ago to ask for an explanation of the relationship between the Minister and the NRA, with specific reference to the division of authority between them. Like many others, I have the general impression that the NRA is a very powerful body. I do not know whether the Minister has total control over it. Is it given guidelines within which it should work? Who decides the number of years over which the cost benefit analysis of a project should be worked out? One of our problems is that we have to pay over €110,000 a week to private operators because we over-estimated the volume of traffic that would use developments such as the M3 and the Limerick tunnel. Who made the mistakes in these cases? Most people are aware that many of the motorways built in recent years were developed to too high a specification. Is there a line of responsibility that can be traced in such cases?

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