INTRODUCTION

The Republic of Ireland has had, for most of the existence of the state (founded in 1921), very poor road infrastructure by European standards. However, for many decades, most of this was adequate for a non-motorised and largely poor populace. Shipping and long distance passenger travel by road was unusual, the railways being good enough for this purpose - though they were similarly underdeveloped. Piecemeal attempts at the development of modern roads were made during the 1970s and 80s, though progress was limited - both by poor organisation and lack of funding.

Once major economic growth began in earnest in the 1990s however, the situation could not persist. Traffic volumes typical of an industrialised nation spilled onto narrow country lanes. Car dependent development appeared all over the country, increasing car use. Car ownership rates soared. High traffic volumes damaged poorly built roads and accident rates increased. These are graphed here.

Funding was stepped up, but a major obstacle to progress was lack of central planning. All road projects had to be very small, due to limited funding, the small size of Irish construction companies, and the difficulty involved in projects which crossed county boundaries, which needed the co-operation of all parties. In 1994, the government formed a new state organisation, the National Roads Authority, whose mandate was to centrally plan a network of high quality trunk roads, and implement them over a number of years. This network would have motorway as its preferred standard as much as possible.

Modest progress was made throughout the 1990s, not enough to keep pace with economic growth. Traffic levels soared nationwide and journey times decreased. By the end of the decade, the situation had become critical. The first National Development Plan aimed to complete a motorway network between 1999 and 2006. However, by 2003, it had become very clear that this goal would not be met, as only around 20% of the network was complete with only 3 years to go - 158 km out of 789. Sure enough, by 2006, the completion rates were abysmal: Dublin to Belfast 88 km complete out of 98 km, Dublin to Navan 0 out of 48 km, Dublin to Galway 55/184 km, Dublin to Limerick 66/185 km, Dublin to Cork 42/158, and Dublin to Waterford - a paltry 6 out of 116. 32% of the network was completed by the supposed completion date.

In response to this, in 2005 the Government announced the Transport21 project, which would complete these roads by 2010 as well as a new set of motorways and dual carriageways running along the western seaboard of the island, known as the Atlantic Corridor. The interurban network of motorways was completed on time but little progress has been made on the roads in the ancillary list due to the economic crisis currently gripping the nation.

Details of the current situation are given on the Existing Road Programme page (list view), which includes all roads programmed for the next couple of decades, though no horizon date is known any more. The Futures page has a wishlist of future projects that would be useful in the long term. Use the links below to navigate.

For curiosity's sake, there is also a map of the old network of Trunk and Link roads that predated the modern N(ational) and R(egional) system.