Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 101: To ask the Minister for Transport if he will publish his cost benefit analysis on the recently announced new tranche of public private partnerships for the National Roads Authority's national road maintenance and building programmes; the amount the new round of PPPs will cost; if projected savings through the PPP programme will be reallocated to the repair of secondary and regional roads; the number of Departmental projects that have been delivered through PPPs; the cost of each of these projects; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23288/08]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware, as Minister for Transport I am responsible for overall policy and funding issues relating to the National Roads Programme element of Transport 21. However, the detailed planning, design and implementation of individual national road improvement projects including those carried out by way of Public Private Partnership (PPP), is a matter for the National Roads Authority (NRA) under the Roads Act 1993. This includes the carrying out of cost benefit analyses for such projects.

Earlier this year the Government reviewed the financing arrangements for Transport 21. Arising from that review it is now proposed that a number of national road projects (involving a capital expenditure of the order of €1 billion) should be undertaken as unitary payment (i.e. non-tolled) PPPs.

Under Section 19 of the Roads Act 1993 the allocation of funding between individual road projects (including their repair and maintenance) is a matter for the NRA.

The NRA is in the process of completing its first phase PPP programme involving private funding of €2.1 billion on toll-based projects.

Four of these projects are now open to traffic, these are as follows:

M50 Second Westlink Bridge;

M1 Dundalk Western Bypass;

N4 Kilcock to Kinnegad;

M8 Fermoy to Rathcormac Bypass.