THE NATIONAL Roads Authority says it is focused on completion of its inter-urban network. It adds that major public-private partnership projects such as the M20 Cork-Limerick road will also go ahead, despite the pressures facing the economy.
Communications manager Seán O'Neill said budgetary constraints were an issue for the NRA but suggestions that major projects would be frozen for the next four years were exaggerated.
"Obviously right now we can't guarantee things and projects will be allocated on a need-to-need basis, but we are focused on the completion of the inter-urban network and there will also be significant projects as part of PPP [public private partnerships]."
The NRA is working on more than 140 projects nationally which are at various stages from planning to completion.
Cork County Council, in partnership with Limerick County Council and in consultation with the NRA, yesterday began a series of public consultations for the M20 Cork-Limerick motorway scheme.
The consultations, which got under way at the Charleville Park Hotel, Co Cork, yesterday and continue today in Blarney Golf Resort, are being held to display the emerging preferred route corridor. The corridor has been developed by the National Roads Office of Cork County Council in conjunction with White Young Green and Arup Consulting Engineers.
The red route, which runs west of Charleville and Croom terminating at Patrickswell, is the preferred option for the main section of the Limerick-Charleville stretch of the 90km motorway.
Landowners east of Granagh and west of the N20, along with those in Garryfine, Rockhill, Cregane and Kiltoohig, face disruption. Letters were posted last week to those who will be affected, offering them the opportunity to meet consultants in private to discuss their individual cases.
Farmer Gerald Quain, who lives at Cregane near Charleville, has previously said that some farms would be impossible to operate if the road cut through their land.
He has asked that farmer "stick together" to ensure that everybody got a fair deal and that nobody was victimised or bulldozed over.
Subject to statutory approval, it is thought that construction on the M20 could begin as early as 2010, nearing completion by 2015. It is not known at this juncture if the road will be tolled.
Interested parties who attended yesterday's consultation received a brochure with a questionnaire and a pre-paid envelope.
Consultations continue today in Blarney, with a third session at Mallow GAA complex tomorrow and another at Fitzgerald's Woodlands House Hotel in Adare on Thursday.
Each consultation will take place between 12.30pm and 8pm.
The massive M20, planned under Transport 21, is part of the Atlantic Corridor road upgrade, and will link Letterkenny to Waterford via Sligo, Tuam, Ennis, Limerick, Mallow and Cork.
Heritage body An Taisce has said there "is no justification" for the construction of the new M20. It says the €1 billion highway is unsustainable and would be unlikely to attract the daily traffic required to justify the investment.
An Taisce added that the existing N20 had already been significantly upgraded to cope with the volume of traffic.
A series of public consultations were held in July to publicise the initial route corridor options for the M20. More than 3,000 people attended those consultations and more than 1,000 individual submissions were forwarded to the design office.
The preferred route may be viewed during office hours at the M20 design office in Goolds Hill, Mallow.
The preliminary design of the preferred scheme will take place next March, followed by the motorway order and environmental impact statement in June.