Monday, 1st March 2004

ROAD UPGRADES NEEDED IMMEDIATELY

Tourism Chief tells Annual Conference

The Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) today called on the Minister for the Environment and the National Roads Authority (NRA) to immediately fast track the upgrading of the intercity road networks to provide an adequate level of service for road users. The IHF’s outgoing President Jim Murphy stated that the current state of Irish roads was abysmal compared to other EU countries, and that speedy upgrading of key routes such as the Dublin to Galway, Cork, Limerick and Waterford roads to dual carriageway status was imperative now to allow for better regional dispersion of overseas and domestic visitors alike. He cited a lack of efficient, safe and enhanced road networks to and within regional areas as a fundamental barrier impeding Ireland’s tourism growth potential.

Addressing the IHF’s 66th Annual Conference in Kerry, Mr Murphy stated that the aim should be to provide a road network where people know from the outset of their journey how long it will take to reach their destination. He suggested all measures including Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) should be investigated to provide immediate impetus to construction plans under the National Development Plan for priority routes. He remarked that for many conference delegates who travelled by car to Kerry from Dublin alone it meant a seven-hour journey. The aim should be to cut this journey to four hours travelling at an average speed of 50 miles per hour, but good roads are fundamental to achieve this.

“It is simply unacceptable in this day and age that our roads are inadequate for the 21st century traveller. Taking a journey from Dublin to other regions is frustrating for all travellers and particularly damages our tourists’ enjoyment of their stay in Ireland. Consistent congestion exacerbated at weekends and bank holidays, combined with a vast array of road standards - from short bursts of motorways through tiny towns and onto inferior roads littered with potholes – combine to discourage people from travelling to our regions. It is deplorable that millions of tourists arrive in Ireland by sea and air efficiently and safely - only to find that once they leave the ferry terminal or airport they will have an inordinately long journey time to reach their final destination. Indeed the probability of them getting lost for another couple of hours given our disjointed signage throughout the country is quite high also,” Mr Murphy says.

The IHF maintains that the objective of road improvement policies should be that a road user leaving Dublin should be able to reach their ultimate destination at an average of 50 hours per mile and thus know the likely arrival time. This can only be achieved, by having available, at a minimum, proper dual carriageways on primary routes. This would be in keeping with other European and US destinations where the road network allows for the quick movement of travellers out of congested areas to the regions they wish to visit.

“PPP schemes are leading the way internationally as a means of providing a high standard of road infrastructure. It provides value for money and means that projects undertaken are contractually obliged to be completed within a certain deadline. The utilisation of private sector enterprise also brings scope for innovation and latest best practice all leading to the accelerated provision of roads,” Mr Murphy continued.

According to the NRA, the Government has set a target of securing €1.27billion in private finance for PPP projects on national roads, which represents 23% of the total road investment programme. This reflects the importance of securing the injection of private finance in order to accelerate the delivery of the public capital programme designed to remedy Ireland's infrastructural deficit.

“We support the NRA and Department of the Environment’s ambition to develop five major inter-urban routes namely Dublin to the Border, Dublin to Galway, Dublin to Cork, Dublin to Limerick and Dublin to Waterford. They aim to raise these to motorway or high quality dual carriageway standard, what we want is a speedy implementation of this objective. In the end, our roads will be safer, people will have more pleasant journeys and fundamentally our visitors will be motivated to travel outside of the greater Dublin area.” Mr Murphy concluded.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Siobhan Molloy/Niamh Boylan Tel: (01) 676 01 68
Weber Shandwick FCC (086) 817 50 66 or (086) 3809191