The main opposition parties have criticised the Government over reports that a lack of funding is seriously delaying the national programme of road-building.
"It is now clear that not a single new road project will start this year due to the lack of funding," Fine Gael said.
The party's spokeswoman on local government and housing, Ms Olivia Mitchell said: "Of the 1369 kilometres of road projects planned, only 33 kilometres have been completed."
"The effects of the national roads allocation in the December budget are only emerging now and will have catastrophic consequences for the economy," she added.
Labour spokesman on the environment, Mr Eamon Gilmore said: "It is obvious that the Government is intent on keeping people in traffic jams for some time to come."
"The failure of the Minister for Environment to implement the road-building programme more speedily will come home to roost on polling day," he warned.
He said: "Now it is patiently obvious that this programme is being stalled, a situation that compounds the failure of Mr McCreevy to increase investment in infrastructural spending in the Budget Estimates a few months ago."
The criticism comes amid a report yesterday by the Construction Industry Federation which said no new road projects would commence this year because the National Roads Authority was being starved of funds. The Department of Environment did not contest the analysis.
