Nearly €5bn needed to prevent decay on roads

The State is not spending enough on roads to prevent decay and nearly €5 billion will have to be invested over the next seven years, officials have told Minister for Transport Shane Ross.

Meanwhile, the Department of Transport has already put €106 million aside for emergency repairs to hundreds of roads damaged by bad weather in February.

Warning of worsening conditions, transport officials said roads will continue to deteriorate over the next three years as not enough will be spent to keep them in “a steady state” until then.

Current state

Analysis from the department’s

Strategic Framework for Investment in Land Transport

report in 2015 estimated €580 million per year would be needed to keep the road network in its current state.

However, the document notes the opening allocation for 2016 was less than half that, at €254 million for capital spending and €43.7 million for current spending.

The documents note that a seven-year investment programme will only see investment meeting the cost of maintenance for local and regional roads in 2019.

Spending on all roads will cost €6 billion under the plan – with €4.4 billion required for essential maintenance and strengthening works; €600 million will come from public-private partnerships. Nearly €1 billion will be spent on new roads.

The situation regarding railways is even more stark with Department of Transport officials telling Mr Ross that “steady state” will depend on a network review.

Subject to review

No calculations are made for the railways, which are subject to a review assessing the extent of the network required in the future, according to the briefing files.

They note that Iarnród Éireann is entirely loss-making and not expected to break even.

The company is responsible for the greatest losses in the CIÉ group, Mr Ross was told.

A number of lines are understood to have been under threat in the rail review: the Waterford to Limerick line; the Ballybrophy-Nenagh- Limerick line and the Western Railway Corridor.

Entire sections of the Minister’s briefing, including a section on finance in relations to Iarnród Éireann, were redacted before the documents were published.

In the Programme for Partnership Government, the Government will review the corridor between Athenry and Claremorris for passenger and freight use.