The Irish Republic's Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport Leo Varadkar has confirmed that investment in transport infrastructure will be scaled back significantly over the next five years in order to allow the Government to meet its commitments in health and education, restore our economic sovereignty, and keep taxes down.

The Minister confirmed that the main construction work will start on Luas BXD in 2015, while there will be ongoing investment in smarter travel projects, and two rounds of sports capital funding. There will also be investment in tourism capital including support for a diaspora centre or museum as an iconic tourist attraction.

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"The Government is making these cutbacks in order to honour our commitments to the people and to the troika to bring the budget deficit to 3% of the GDP by 2015 so that Ireland's economic sovereignty can be restored. It will also assist us to honour our commitments to keep income taxes down and maintain basic social welfare rates.

"Overall spending on transport capital will fall by almost 50% from €1.5 billion in 2011 to €0.8 billion in 2016. More than 85% of transport capital will be required to restore and maintain existing roads and railways, and to purchase replacement buses and trains. The priority is therefore to make the best use, and to get maximum value, from existing infrastructure. That is why we are focusing on projects like Luas BXD, smarter travel initiatives, fleet renewal, and safety and maintenance.

"Given that we already have a large number of ‘shovel-ready’ projects which have been suspended until after 2016, there is little point in spending more money on planning new projects."

(CD)