Brennan 'well disposed' to NRA having more road-building power

The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, is "well disposed" to a change in the status of the National Roads Authority (NRA) to give the body more control over road building.

Currently the NRA's role as a "funding agency" has a central role in paying for road building, but the actual contracts are signed between local authorities and the contractors. The NRA, having often designed the road and advised county councils and taken the project through the Bord Pleanála hearings, then loses executive power as the local authority manages the actual construction period.

Yesterday the NRA said it wanted to replace the local authorities as the principal agency dealing with contractors, or at least be in a position to co-sign the contracts with the contractors.

The situation is different, however, with public-private partnerships, where the NRA has executive control of all contractual matters.

Responding to the NRA comments yesterday, a spokesman for the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, said the Minister would likely be well disposed to the move and has in fact mooted the idea himself in the past. However, in relation to a decision on €2 billion in funding to complete the routes to Galway and Cork, the spokesman said the Minister has "only in the last few days" received final drafts of the various options put forward by the NRA.

The spokesman reiterated the Minister's opposition to tolling existing infrastructure, particularly the Jack Lynch Tunnel.

Without the arrangements, however, the NRA has said the routes will only be partially completed by 2008. Under this scenario, the NRA said the Dublin to Galway route would be just 70 per cent complete by 2008; while the motorway to Cork would be just 47 per cent complete; the motorway to Limerick 43 per cent finished; and the motorway to Waterford just 14 per cent complete.

All motorways between Dublin and the cities would be complete by 2010, the NRA said.