The Budget must earmark "significant additional resources" for road-building in 2004 or the Government will run the risk of jeopardising the State's competitiveness, says the Institution of Engineers in Ireland.

In a last-minute appeal to the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, to augment the capital programme set down in the Estimates, the institution's director general, Mr Paddy Purcell, cast doubt on the capacity of the promised contribution by public-private partnerships (PPPs) to fill the gap in funding.

"The capacity of PPPs to make a major impact in the area of infrastructural provision in Ireland has been disappointing to date, and legal and other regulatory costs have tended to put investors off this option," he said.

He said the current capital allocation of €1.2 billion simply matched the allocation for this year and would not allow for "serious headway of the roads infrastructure deficit, which is seriously hampering Ireland's competitiveness" without the provision of "significant additional resources" in Wednesday's Budget.

"It would be of serious concern and a missed opportunity if the current favourable construction industry and interest rate conditions were not used to increase the speed at which the country's acknowledged infrastructure deficit is tackled," Mr Purcell said.

The institution, which represents 21,000 engineers in the State, called on the Government to increase borrowing and use development levies to boost roadbuilding and keep the National Development Plan on track.