Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)
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Question 124: To ask the Minister for Transport if his Department has completed feasibility studies for the estimated cost of the ten year national strategic transport plan; if his Department's findings exceed the previously proposed budget of €20 billion; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26551/05]

Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 132: To ask the Minister for Transport the outstanding issues that need to be resolved in the ten year strategic transport plan; and when he will finalise the project. [29061/05]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 134: To ask the Minister for Transport the size of the capital envelope for transport projects over the next five years; and the extent to which this has been pre-empted by projects under the national development plan. [26680/05]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 136: To ask the Minister for Transport, in the context of the ten year plan for transport, the traffic modelling work he has commissioned to review the impact on traffic volumes of not proceeding with infrastructure developments promised under A Platform for Change and which were built into the environmental impact statements of already committed or part completed projects such as the widening of the M50. [29054/05]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 124, 132, 134 and 136 together.

The current five-year investment envelope for transport provides for capital expenditure of €10.15 billion over the 2005-09 period. I cannot comment on the level of funding to be made available for the ten-year transport investment framework until the Government has considered the matter. I hope to bring proposals to Government shortly.

The estimated overall funding requirement to implement the framework is based on the work carried out by the agencies and my Department to date. To identify the broad direction and priorities under the transport investment framework, my Department engaged with Córas Iompair Éireann, the Railway Procurement Agency, the National Roads Authority and the Dublin Transportation Office. The new framework will also take account of the various strategic studies already completed by my Department and its agencies, including A Platform for Change, the strategic rail review and the national road needs study, and of other proposals such as Iarnród Éireann's greater Dublin integrated rail network plan.

The framework will, of course, build on the work already completed or under way under the transport element of the current national development plan. Key transport priorities under the current NDP, such as the completion of the motorways linking Dublin to the provincial cities, will be provided for as part of the new framework.

In developing the framework, my Department asked the Dublin Transportation Office, DTO, to carry out transportation modelling on the impacts of a number of different scenarios to help assess the optimal mix of investments. Projects which are already committed to or are part completed, and which are likely to form part of the draft framework, were of course included in this exercise, in order to give a view of the overall impact of the proposed integrated transport network on traffic and travel behaviour. The draft framework is currently being finalised and is expected to be considered by Government shortly.