Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, Deputy Varadkar, and I thank the Senator for the opportunity to address this issue in the House.

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport has responsibility for overall policy and funding in respect of the national roads programme. However, the planning, design and implementation of individual national roads projects are matters for the National Roads Authority, the Roads Acts 1993 to 2007, in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. The Government's infrastructure and capital investment framework formed the basis for a new national development plan for the period 2012 to 2016. There was ongoing discussion with the National Roads Authority during the preparation of this investment framework. The framework recognises that the key challenge in current financial circumstances is to try to ensure adequate maintenance of the national road network in order to protect the value of previous investments and that it is only possible to proceed with a very limited number of road improvement projects over the period to 2016. The investment framework acknowledges that, given the scale and cost of future motorway and high quality dual carriageway projects, it would not be feasible to fund them directly from Exchequer resources. Rather, it was intended to fund them by means of a public private partnership using private money to build and maintain these roads, to be repaid back by the Exchequer over an extended period in the form of availability payments. In this context, provision was made for funding the Exchequer element of the N11 Arklow-Rathnew and Newlands Cross PPP scheme within the 2012 to 2016 capital budget.

It was indicated that while the private funding market was very challenging intensive efforts were being made to access funding for PPP projects with a view to the National Roads Authority progressing projects such as the Gort-Tuam PPP and the New Ross-Enniscorthy PPP. In July this year, as part of the Government's infrastructure stimulus package, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform announced that ¤850 million would be invested in upgrading the national motorway and primary route network. As part of this plan, which will be funded in part from the proposed sale of State assets, three road PPP projects have been identified for funding. These projects are, the N17-N18 Gort Tuam road, the M11 Gorey-Enniscorthy road and the N25 New Ross bypass. These projects, together with the N11 Arklow-Rathnew road and N7 Newlands Cross scheme, had been identified by the NRA some time ago as suitable for progression as PPPs. These are projects where there is considerable certainty regarding the timeframe for implementation as all the lands required have been secured.

One further priority transport project is the Galway city bypass. This is a 12 km orbital route for Galway city linking with the M6 major interurban route to Dublin. The project is currently on hold pending the outcome of legal proceedings. Depending on the outcome of those proceedings it is hoped to progress it as an additional PPP project. Unfortunately, financial constraints mean that other worthwhile projects cannot go ahead in the short to medium term with progress very much dependent on the availability of funds after 2016.