Derek McDowell (Labour)

Yes, it is a reduction at this point in real terms compared to the amount spent last year.

Much of it is being spent under a few major headings, the most obvious of which is roads. Senator Dooley is here so we should acknowledge that the Ennis bypass is once more at the starting line and we should hope it crosses it some time during the year. I look forward to the ribbon finally being cut. Senator Minihan listed the roads he expects will be in place before 2006, the 70 kilometres to Portlaoise and the motorway to the Border. The entire network was supposed to be in place by 2006, a much more extensive list of projects than those the Senator listed. The programme is way behind schedule.

We should be spending more on roads. It was inevitable that we would not even be in a position to spend money in the first couple of years because the planning and design was not done in many cases. Extra money was spent two or three years ago on planning and design and some of those projects are now in a position where they could go ahead if the money was available. In simple terms, this is not a straight line. We are not looking at a situation where one would spend the same amount on motorway construction over a period of seven years, but where it will start low and bulge around the middle, which is the position at present. However, there is no bulge because we are spending money on a very small number of projects next year.

The NRA is suggesting there will be 12 or 13 major projects and no more than that. To put it in context, €1.3 billion is a lot of money but when one is spending approximately a third of it on the Dublin Port tunnel, it puts it into context. To be anywhere near meeting the targets for the motorway projects – we are not going to meet them – we need to spend a great deal more on them than we are currently intending to spend.

The Minister for Finance and the public service would say that we did not get the best value for money in the first two years. In truth, he is right. There is no doubt that when the construction industry was at full belt a couple of years ago, the industry's inflation rate was running well ahead of the rest of the economy. We were not getting the value on the return that we needed. We are not in that situation now. Clearly, the construction industry has slowed down somewhat. Labour is available in a way that it has not been for the past few years. We would not have the same downside risks in terms of increasing expenditure on motorways now and that is what we should be doing.