The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, has insisted that the new national traffic corps he has proposed as part of a strategy to cut carnage on the roads will go ahead, despite speculation it would be a casualty of Government cutbacks.
Speaking in Co Meath yesterday where he performed a "topping out" ceremony on the new Boyne Bridge, which is part of the M1 motorway due to open next spring, he said he was "determined to push ahead with the traffic corps and identify its funding".
It had been reported that it would be a casualty of cutbacks by his department, but the Minister rejected this scenario, saying, "it is going to go ahead".
"The traffic corps is an important part of road safety and an important part of the whole strategy."
However he did say its appearance on the roads could be delayed and will not be early next year as originally muted.
"With the best will in the world, and leaving funding aside, by the time we get the issues sorted out e.g. how involved the Garda are, it will be the second half of next year.It will definitely not be axed, the issue is timing."
The 21.5km motorway will link the existing Balbriggan and Dunleer bypasses, and will bypass Drogheda, to the relief of thousands of motorists.
It will also be the first motorway to be tolled outside of the M50 and in a speech to Drogheda Chamber of Commerce yesterday the Minister repeated his preference for electronic tolling.
The chamber had objected to the tolling aspect of the scheme, claiming it will have a detrimental impact on the local economy.
It also used the Minister's visit to press the need for the construction of a long-awaited link road to Drogheda port.
Heavy goods vehicles from the port now travel along the congested quays on the southern end of the town and through housing estates on the northern side to access the main Dublin-Belfast road; this will not be affected by the new motorway.
"Drogheda urgently needs this access to the port which will take traffic out of the town and let life and prosperity back in," said Mr David Pryor, chief executive of the chamber.
The Minister referred to the continuing growth of Drogheda.
He said the M1 will mean it is just a 20-minute drive from Dublin Airport, and the town, which is believed not to be identified in the forthcoming spatial strategy, "is a major growth area anyway" .
The Minister also said that construction of the M3 motorway from Clonee in south Meath to north of Kells was a "priority" for the Government and "the project will be done".
The Boyne Bridge is the first major cable-stayed bridge in the country and is the biggest ever built in the Republic.