Report is critical of roads authority

The European Union has refused to co-finance a number of cost overruns incurred by the National Roads Authority (NRA), according to the Comptroller and Auditor General.

In an examination of the NRA systems to quantify whether the national roads network was carried out "economically, efficiently and effectively", Mr John Purcell found "considerable cost overruns" which were not explained by inflation, "poor estimation of costs" at the planning stage and that specified reductions in travel times would not be achieved.

Mr Purcell's report also says that there is room for further improvement in the management of roads development.

Mr Purcell examined the roads programme funding between 1994 and 1997, during which expenditure totalled £792 million. The EU had initially been expected to provide 85 per cent of the funding, but ultimately provided an estimated 60 per cent. According to Mr Purcell's report "some projects overran considerably on cost and the EU Commission has not agreed to finance the extra spending". The balance was met by the Irish exchequer.

In relation to overruns, Mr Purcell's report found "substantial increases have incurred in the estimated costs of many projects included in the programme. These increases are significantly more than could be explained by inflation and have been attributed mainly to poor estimation of costs at the start of planning and major changes in the scope and quality of projects at the design stage".

The impact of the development work on the four National Strategic Corridors was targeted at a reduction in combined average journey times of 204 minutes. The four strategic corridors are: the Border to Dublin/Wexford and Cork; Dublin to Limerick/Cork; Dublin to Sligo/Galway; and the Sligo to Limerick to Waterford route. The Comptroller found the roads programme would result in reduced combined average journey times of 175 minutes.

Mr Michael Tobin, chief executive of the NRA, said yesterday the authority accepted it had a difficulty with the cost estimation of projects. "We would recognise that the system has been less than ideal," said Mr Tobin, who added that new guidelines had gone out to the people who estimate developments.

Mr Tobin said a number of schemes would not be finished within the time period, which would have a direct bearing on the target time-savings.