EU funding for roads will be significantly reduced from 2000 until 2006 when it will cease altogether but if the economy is managed efficiently the investment will be available, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, said yesterday.
Speaking after the launch of the National Road Needs Study, the Minister said that the EU would have contributed £1.1 billion for national roads for the period 1994 to 1999. From 2000 to 2006, the level of funding to be provided by the EU was unknown but it was known it would be greatly reduced. "If we handle the economy well, we'll be able to make up the difference," he said. "But if we don't, the situation will deteriorate."
After 2006, if Ireland continued to be treated as one region, there would be no EU funding. The Government would then have to provide the vast bulk of financing for national roads.
"The requirement will be over £307 million per annum to keep to the plan," the Minister said. Indications have been that EU funding until 2006 could be half of what had been received up to now. At the launch, the Minister had warned that in the absence of further investment, the situation would deteriorate steadily due to growth in traffic volumes.
He said there had now been nearly a decade of substantial investment in national roads. In addition, the end of the current round of EU Structural and Cohesion funding was now approaching, and a period of transition was beginning in terms of the overall level of transfer to Ireland. It was important, therefore, that the best possible use was made of funding under the next round. The study would help to do that.
The proposed programme of work on national roads to 2019 will cost £6.1 billion and will be carried out in five-year phases.
Mr Liam Connellan, chairman of the National Roads Authority, said the report highlighted the requirement for additional funding for maintenance in order to preserve the quality of the network in an optimal way. He said the study made a very strong case for a substantial boost in investment.
The authority considered that the greatest benefits to competitiveness and jobs would occur if there was a major front-loading of the investment towards the early years of the 20-year time span covered by the study, he added.