Opposition parties yesterday demanded Government action to control the costs of infrastructure, claiming the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, had not done enough to control the cost over-runs on the State's road building programme. Mark Brennock reports.
Fine Gael transport spokesman Mr Denis Naughten said he believed the cost of major infrastructure projects would continue to run massively over budget due to continuing problems over the system of calculating costs.
He said many problems highlighted in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General had not yet been resolved. "The report cites cost overruns of 9 per cent in 2002 and states that further improvements still need to be made to the method used to estimate final costs," he said.
"Meanwhile, many projects are falling more and more behind schedule. According to the report, around 80 per cent of the road projects should have been delivered by 2006. However, even with the increased funding committed to the road building programme, the achievement rate will be less than 50 per cent by 2006 and only 70 per cent by 2008."
Labour's transport spokeswoman, Ms Róisín Shortall, called on Mr Brennan to introduce measures immediately to control the spiralling cost of the national roads programme.
She said the report from the Comptroller and Auditor General was damning. "Constant warnings were issued that the original €7 billion estimate was wholly inadequate for the extensive work that must be undertaken to upgrade Irish roads. Now the taxpayer is left to foot the bill for the National Roads Authority's incompetence." She said Mr Brennan had to take some responsibility. "Despite oft repeated promises, there is still no sign of the National Roads Infrastructure Bill which if implemented correctly would cut the cost of land acquisition to assist road building."
The Green Party finance spokesman, Mr Dan Boyle, said the NRA had had its budget for the national roads programme increased from €6 billion to €15.8 billion, and "certainly needs to answer questions on the ineffective spending of taxpayers' money".
He said that while the report was valuable it could only judge whether there had been effective use of the money spent on planned infrastructure and "not whether such infrastructure is what is really needed. The deviation from the National Roads Authority's own road needs survey of 1999, which recommended less motorway development, is in need of a separate and detailed investigation," he said.
Sinn Féin's finance spokesman Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin called on the Minister for Finance to resign over the "incredible mismanagement of the National Development Plan" revealed by the Comptroller and Auditor General's Report.
He said "this Government's management of the National Development Plan, for which the Finance Minister is responsible, has been exposed as a fiasco".
He added that the "massive rip-off of the taxpayer" had been facilitated by a systematic failure on the part of the National Roads Authority to properly cost and monitor projects.