Cost overruns on State-funded building projects are significantly less than on infrastructural projects, according to a study carried out for the Society of Chartered Surveyors (SCS).
According to the study, on average, building projects involving State money run about 4 per cent over budget compared with more than 100 per cent in the case of some infrastructural projects.
The interim report of the survey of cost performance of building work by quantity surveyor John Brownlee was released yesterday and according to the SCS, it shows that "State-funded building projects are being successfully cost-controlled".
"In comparison, it would appear that costs have been anything but successfully controlled in infrastructural projects like roads and bridges," an SCS spokesman said.
"In a 2½-year period between 1999 and 2002, the costs of planned infrastructure works under the national roads improvement programme more than doubled."
According to a report from the Dáil Committee on Public Accounts, those infrastructural projects, which had originally been estimated to cost €7 billion, finally cost €15.8 billion.
"These cost overruns on infrastructural projects are primarily due to the fact that the functions of design and cost management are not separated," said SCS president Derry Scully.
The survey included State-funded building contracts such as schools, colleges, hospitals, social housing, Garda stations and offices, completed in a four-year period up until mid-2004.
"The SCS calls on the Government to ease the unnecessary added burden on the taxpayer by separating the roles of design and cost management to help ensure cost certainty on infrastructure projects," Mr Scully said.