Vol. 510 No. 6
315 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if he will provide extra funding to the National Roads Authority to enable it to speed up its program for the provision of extra road infrastructure; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23657/99]
The recently published national development plan includes an amount of £4.4 billion for the improvement of the national road network in the period 2000 to 2006. This is more than three times the level of investment on national road improvement provided for under the operational programme for transport 1994-99.
In the light of this planned expansion of the national road programme, my Department has also recently approved a number of proposals from the National Roads Authority for increased staffing in the project management, public private partnerships and other areas.
