Discussions are under way to sell the Dublin Port Tunnel on its completion in 2005, the Department of Transport has confirmed.
Talks have been held between the Transport Minister, Mr Brennan, and the potential buyer, the National Pension Reserve Fund.
The Minister, who is understood to support the planned sale, is now awaiting an official response from the Fund.
The planned cost of buying the tunnel is estimated at between €1 billion and €2 billion, a fee that would be recouped through the charging of a toll on lorries using it. Funds from the sale of the tunnel would be used to kickstart the Department's stalled roads programme.
Eighteen major road projects are ready to go - having passed all planning procedures - but a shortage of funds has delayed work.
Leading economists have recently advised the National Pension Reserve Fund undertake such a purchase.
Should the plan get the go-ahead, the Tunnel would change hands on the completion of its construction in 2005.
But a spokesperson for the Department of Transport played down a report that suggested Minister Brennan also intended selling the M1 motorway linking Dublin to Belfast.
Conditions of such a sale would be complicated, as part of the motorway - the Drogheda bypass - will be tolled from June 9th next.