Claims that the National Roads Programme was stalled and running out of money were criticised by the Minister for the Environment yesterday. Mr Dempsey strongly rejected the claims, made by the Construction Industry Federation last week.
He was the second Government Minister to criticise the construction industry this week, speaking after the Minister for Finance's comments on Thursday on inflated tendering within the industry.
Mr Dempsey said it was not true to claim funding for the roads programme had been stalled or that the programme would not be completed. It was a fact, he said, that over the past two years additional funds had been voted by way of supplementary estimates for the National Roads Authority.
He also rejected suggestions the extra money was attributable to inflation, pointing out that at the end of 2001 the programme was still ahead of schedule.
In relation to the number of road schemes which would begin next year, the Minister acknowledged there would "probably" be fewer start-ups. But he attributed this to the size of current projects.
"In the early period there were contracts to the value of about £15 million to £45 million but now, as the five major routes are being progressed, the contracts are much larger, in the order of €250 million to €300 million," he said.
He insisted the Budget allocation of about €1 billion was the NRA's largest to date. There had been "no massive cut" or no cut at all in the Budget and to suggest there was was misleading.
He also said it was untrue to suggest the Government was halting funding on the roads programme in the hope that public-private partnerships (PPP) would pick up the slack. "There has been no slow-up. The Government will invest €1 billion this year, and the PPP element of that will add about €19 million, that is all," he said.
Asked about further PPP projects, the Minister said the Government would be foolish to refuse additional funds for further road-building, but he insisted it would not replace State commitments under the National Development Plan. He was "distressed that the CIF statements don't bear any relation to reality" and he could only attribute the federation's attitude to "scaremongering". "The CIF statement seemed to indicate that everybody else should tighten their belt but not them," he said.
He shared the concerns of the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, on price increases in relation to tenders for road projects, but said inflation had run at about 7 per cent in the civil engineering side of the construction industry, a figure which would not explain some of the price increases.