Road maintenance will cost the State an estimated £6 billion over the next 20 years, the Dail Committee of Public Accounts was told.
This would mean annual expenditure of about £300 million, which compared with current expenditure of about £270 million, the secretary general of the Department of the Environment, Mr Jimmy Farrelly, said yesterday.
He said the Republic was the "victim" of a rapidly increasing economy and although the traffic and road problems were not on the scale of European cities, it was getting there fast.
Between 1991 and 1997, car ownership in Dublin had increased by 30 per cent with almost a doubling of shipments through Dublin Port to 16.1 million tonnes, he added. During the same period, there had been a 90 per cent rise in passengers
through Dublin Airport. This had resulted in an annual increase in traffic volumes of 4 to 8 per cent.
Mr John Henry, of the Dublin Transportation Office, said a measure of a buoyant economy was the amount of traffic congestion. Next Monday the DTO would send a two-year action plan to the Minister dealing with improvements to the rail network, more rapid development of quality bus corridors, and the provision of 180 km of cycle lanes. The plan would cost about £170 million, and about £145 million of that was essentially available.
Mr Pat Rabbitte (DL) said traffic congestion had become an impediment to economic growth and the condition of secondary roads was comparable to the Third World, he added.
