Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 November 2004
310 Ms O. Mitchell asked the Minister for Transport the amount of the €1.27 billion target included in the NDP for private financing of the national roads programme which has been secured to date; if this target has not been reached, the amount of funding which has been secured to date; if he will report on the difficulties in reaching the target of €1.27 billion; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29966/04]
View answerThe national development plan, NDP, included a private finance target of €1.27 billion. This target is the cumulative contribution expected from the private finance sector towards the capital investment in the national roads programme for the period 2000 to 2006. The National Roads Authority, NRA, announced in mid-2000 a programme of nine PPP projects. This PPP programme was further augmented in 2004 with the announcement of an additional PPP project, namely the M50 upgrade PPP. To date, four PPP contracts have been awarded namely the second Westlink bridge completed in 2003 and the following projects under construction; N4-N6 Kilcock-Kinnegad motorway, M1 Dundalk western bypass and the N8 Rathcormac-Fermoy bypass. The total amount of private finance put in place for these projects amounts to €567 million inclusive of standby facilities on the debt and equity funding to cover any additional costs incurred by the PPP companies. If one excludes these standby facilities, the amount of private finance placed into PPP contracts to date amounts to €480 million.
Other PPP projects are at various stages of procurement including the N25 Waterford bypass, N3 Clonee-Kells motorway, Limerick tunnel and M50 upgrade. All these contracts are planned to be awarded either in 2005 or 2006, and assuming that no delays affect these targets, an estimated further €1.1billion of private finance will have been committed to national roads investment amounting to €1.58 billion in total by end 2006, a sum well in excess of the €1.27 billion target. In addition, the remaining two PPP projects will be advertised in 2005, namely, the Portlaoise PPP motorway and the Galway-Ballinasloe scheme, both of which will be substantially funded by private finance.
