Extra money for roads in Budget

The Minister for Transport is to fill up financial shortfalls in the roads programme and is expected to increase funding in the December Budget.

Minister Seamas Brennan currently has €1bn a year for the roads programme for the next four years.

However, an extra €500m a year will be needed to keep the programme on the road according to the Department of Transport.

Minister Brennan hopes the extra money will come through the new National Development Finance Agency with plans for road tolling operations, fixed price contracts and bringing in foreign companies to build.

Senior Spokesperson for Transport Tom Rowley this evening said that European examples had shown that drivers will pay for roads.

"The international experience is that they will once they've good quality roads."

"Here, you are by-passing major towns like Drogheda, Cashel and Monasterevin and all of these places that are bottlenecks at the moment.

"If you have a road that takes you past these bottlenecks and lessens the time it takes to travel from A to B, then I think people will pay."