Up to 50 lives a year could be saved by advancing plans to build motorways or upgrade national routes, but these developments are being obstructed by farmers and other opposition groups, a National Roads Authority official said yesterday.
Mr Michael Egan, director of corporate services with the NRA, told members of Offaly County Council that since last year the IFA and other groups had been obstructing local authorities by denying them access to lands to carry out studies for the new national routes.
Up to 50 lives would be "needlessly lost" this year because of this, as one of the aims of building improved roads was to make roads safer, Mr Egan said. He repeated his call to the IFA to enter talks with the NRA.
The obstruction of local authorities and consultants in carrying out fieldwork was illegal, Mr Egan said. The IFA's justification for its opposition, he said, was that the NRA refused to discuss compensation for farmers whose lands would be affected by the road plans.
He said the NRA did not purchase land under compulsory purchase order (CPO) legislation. This was done by local authorities who, he believed, were more than fair in negotiating a price with farmers.
The NRA was "baffled" that the IFA continued this campaign, especially since the farmers' organisation was now involved in talks with the Department of the Environment. Costs were already being incurred and contractors had to be paid on a number of projects, regardless of whether they had access to the lands.
Mr Egan said the NRA had not been party to talks between the Department and the IFA. He said, however, that "in fairness" to the IFA, it had wanted to keep the numbers at the negotiating table to a minimum.