The NRA is on the road to nowhere

THE transport minister says it is unfair to compare the ballpark estimates for the roads programme with the eventual outturn figures. There are two questions that need answering.

Would the Government have embarked on the present programme if it had known the true cost? The present programme is not that recommended in the 1998 roads needs study, nor is it part of the five-year plan which the NRA is supposed, but has so far failed, to produce.

Who produced these woefully inadequate original estimates? The present figures come as no surprise. The Campaign for Sensible Transport predicted exactly this situation two years ago, but its report was universally ignored.

BJ Hodkinson,

Annaholty,

Birdhill,

Co Tipperary.