Calls made two years ago in the Irish Seanad for more service and rest stations to be built on national primary routes have been "blatantly ignored," according to a Fine Gael Senator.

Paudie Coffey said Ireland now has 300km of national roads re-designated as motorways with not a single rest or refuelling stop to be found anywhere en route.

"You can now drive from Dundalk all the way to Cork by motorway without anywhere to pull over for a break, a snack, a tank of petrol or a comfort stop," he said.

"This not only makes Ireland a laughing stock of the world, it is also a road safety hazard."

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Senator Coffey said he called for action on this in the Seanad two years ago, in October 2007.

"I called for the provision of service and rest stations on national primary routes as 'a matter of national importance from a road safety perspective.'

"The National Roads Authority (NRA) had been slow to plan for the provision of rest stations on new highways. Even now, no contract has been signed to build a single service area, and outline planning is just only starting to deal with dual-carriageway routes."

He claimed the Government has given a "hey-presto" motorway network without providing a single rest and refuelling area anywhere along those 300km of road.

"We are the last country in the world to build motorways. Surely the NRA and the Government could have learned from America, Germany and the UK that you must build service areas at convenient intervals along super-highways."

The senator said any moves on rest stops would be good for the building sector.

"Even if they don't care about road safety, they should realise that building service areas is a good way of helping the construction industry."

(PR/BMcc)