Plans to accelerate the building of the motorways from Dublin to Cork and Galway were announced by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, yesterday.
Both motorways are currently under construction at an estimated cost of €3 billion.
The Minister said he wanted to see if the remaining bypasses and motorway sections of each route could be bundled together and linked to a single finance package for each scheme.
Both motorways are earmarked as toll roads which are to be built as public-private partnerships.
Given an average state contribution to the PPP schemes of 65 per cent, the cost to the Exchequer of both schemes would be about €2 billion.
Speaking at the opening of the Watergrasshilll bypass in Co Cork, the Minister said he had asked the National Development Finance Agency and the National Roads Authority to examine urgently ways of bundling all remaining contracts on the Dublin-Cork scheme together.
If a successful formula is found it would then be applied to the Galway route.
The Minister said that by bringing all the schemes together it might be possible to make a dramatic leap forward in delivering this vital intercity motorway.
The inter-urban motorways were identified as a priority in 1999 at the publication of the National Development Plan 2000-2007.
However, halfway through the plan over 50 per cent of the initial projected cost of €6.3 billion has been spent, while only about 30 per cent of the roads have been built.
Mr Brennan said that, in addition to the talks he had initiated between the finance and roads agencies, measures being taken to accelerate the delivery of the two motorways included:
- the drafting of a Critical Infrastructure (Motorways) Bill.
- the publication of an overall 20-year transport strategy framework.
- examination of priority options under the National Development Plan.
- discussions about reform of the NRA.
- maximising the use of design-and-build (fixed-price) contracts.
- the publication of monthly progress reports.
While the initiative represents a review of the current motorway programme, the Minister was adamant that roads were being built as fast and efficiently in the Republic as any other country.
He said the main problem encountered with road-building was that from the moment the route was selected to when the first sod was turned could take anything up to seven years.
The Critical Infrastructure Bill would address issues such as compulsory purchase orders, land acquisition, property prices and "a myriad of other legal requirements".
The Minister added that the Kildare bypass would open ahead of schedule, by the end of this year.
Admiring the Watergrasshill scheme, he said it provided proof that the actual construction time was as fast here as any other country.
State-wide since 2000, some 30 projects or 231km of national roads, including 64km of officially designated motorway and 24km of dual carriageway, had been completed.
Work was under way on 16 more projects or about 173km of national roads, including 155km of motorway.
Tendering was under way, and work was expected to begin in the coming months on a further 16 projects or some 145km of road.