Brennan: Up to €150m a month for roads for next five years

Transport Minister Seamus Brennan has claimed that a new funding package agreed with the Department of Finance will result in up to €150m being spent on Ireland’s roads every month for the next five years.

Mr Brennan described the five-year funding deal as “historic” and said it was the most significant development to date in the road-building programme.

He was speaking as he turned the first sod on a new section of N22 between Tralee and Killarney in Co Kerry this morning.

The €14.6m scheme from Gortatlea to Farranfore will deliver four kilometres of new infrastructure, including a bridge over the River Maine. It will extend the recently-improved section of the N22 Bealagrellagh-Gortatlea road.

When completed, early in 2006, it will mean that a combined eight-kilometre section of the N22 National Primary Road between Tralee and Killarney will have been improved to single-carriageway standard.