Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Question 49: To ask the Minister for Transport if he will instruct the National Roads Authority to redraft the guidelines around motorway service stations to encourage private investment in these vital service areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42676/10]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for overall policy and funding in regard to the national roads programme element of Transport 21. The implementation of individual national road projects, including service areas, is a matter for the National Roads Authority in conjunction with the local authorities concerned.

Section 54 of the Roads Act 1993 specifically provides for the NRA or a local authority to provide and-or operate service areas. In 2005, the then Minister for Transport asked the NRA to review its policy of generally not providing service areas on national roads, particularly on the expanding network of access-controlled motorways and dual carriageways. Arising from this review, the NRA developed a programme for the provision of up to 12 service areas on the major inter-urban routes as well as the N6-N18 junction and the N11 route at intervals of approximately 50-60 km. Two documents relating to the NRA's policy on the provision of service areas are available on their website at www.nra.ie.

The NRA has completed the delivery of the first tranche of three service areas under a PPP programme - two on the M1 and one on the M4. A further service area at Gorey on the M11 is scheduled to be constructed as part of the N11 Rathnew-Arklow and N7 Newlands Cross junction improvement schemes.

The NRA proposals for other service areas are progressing through the planning process. However, the construction of these service areas is heavily dependent on the availability of funds and the prioritisation of projects within a reduced capital budget. In light of this, I have advised the IR - I am sorry, I meant the NRA - that it should consider other options to finance the provision of service areas which do not require Exchequer funding.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Clearly, Gerry Adams is getting a bit close to the Minister.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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He is not in my constituency.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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He is nearly bordering it.

I do not understand why this question is not grouped with Question No. 54, which deals with more or less the same issue. I drive from Cork to Dublin most weeks. I leave Cork at 10 p.m. and often drive home on a Thursday evening at a similar time. This is not only a serious road safety issue in that there is nowhere to pull in on the motorway between Dublin and Cork once one passes Naas, it is also a danger in terms of being able to refuel as there is only a small number of 24-hour petrol stations close to that route. Nonetheless, the main issue is a road safety one, namely, people falling asleep at the wheel when they should be provided with service stations to get a cup of coffee and fill up on fuel.

This is standard practice with motorway infrastructure in other parts of Europe, certainly in Britain, where there is a very good road safety record, as the Minister will know. It is not good enough for the NRA to state we simply cannot afford to do proceed at present because we do not have the resources. This is something the private sector should and can do but it probably requires a change in the criteria we currently require in terms of all the facilities that must be provided to make a service area viable.

Will the Minister talk to the NRA in regard to redrafting the guidelines in order to attract private sector investment in the provision of service areas on motorways such as the Cork-Dublin motorway?

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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That is precisely what I asked the NRA to do, and I asked it to come back to me with proposals for service areas along these routes that would not cost the Exchequer anything. I agree with the Deputy that the private sector should be in a position to do this, although the NRA has informed me that part of the reason service areas were not provided for initially was that it thought the private sector would come in to provide them. When it was discovered it was not doing that, the policy was changed in 2005. While we are now in the financial situation we are in, I have no problem with the Deputy's suggestion that the private sector should provide these service areas and I have asked the NRA to come back with proposals that would allow the private sector to do so.

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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The Minister has partly answered the question. Why, in the first instance, was this not an integral part of all major road construction projects? How could the NRA have contemplated links between Dublin and the main cities of Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford and Wexford without having service stations along the route? Anyone in their right mind who has travelled on a road would recognise that this was par for the course and the norm in any other country.

The Minister said the NRA was asked to review this in 2005, which is five years ago. Virtually all of the main routes have opened since then and much work could have taken place to ensure some formula was found to enable most of the new routes to have service stations by now.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy knows, while all of the routes are now being finalised, many of them had gone through the planning process in 2005 and the ones that had not, namely, the M1 and M4, have service areas. It would be unfair to characterise the NRA as not being in favour of providing the service areas as it certainly is in favour of it and it understands the arguments in this regard. It is a matter of coming up with the ways and means of providing service areas without taking money away from road building projects.

A number of private developers have obtained planning approvals for offline facilities, including at the M7 Mayfield junction at Monasterevin and in a number of locations on the M6 and M8, including at Kilcullen, as well as a number of others in various locations. In response to both Deputies, the NRA has been asked to try to come up with a formula that will allow these to be built.

Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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There was no planning for service stations on most of the roads, particularly the Dublin-Cork road. Will the Minister have the NRA allow the erection of signage from a road safety perspective? People are driving the roads but they do not know where to get off to have a cup of tea, to refuel or otherwise. Given these stops have not been built, signage is needed. We have contacted the NRA several times in this regard but it will not allow signage to be erected. In the interim, I ask that this be done as well as allowing the projects to be progressed.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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The NRA has allowed for signage for offline services and this has been provided on all of the major inter-urban routes. There are criteria in this regard and in regard to identifying the appropriate locations. It is based on the proximity of a particular premises or facility to an interchange and on an indication of whether the operator can provide the facilities to which Deputy Coveney referred, such as fuel and toilet facilities.