The national road building programme will not be complete until around 2009 and not 2006 as previously envisaged, the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, has confirmed.
Seven new major road projects will begin this year. There were no projects last year.
The total spending on roads this year will be €1.26 billion, €209 million of which was secured in the Budget.
Announcing details yesterday of the grant allocation for road projects in 2003, Mr Brennan said the road building section of the National Development Plan would take "two or three years" longer than the 2006 deadline.
"Rising costs and the changed economic and budgetary circumstances have to be taken into account with the result that some projects will take longer to deliver," he said.
The Minister claimed the additional €209 million provided in the Budget underlined the Government's continued commitment to upgrading the national roads network.
However, the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) said that based on the Minister's funding the road building project may not be finished until as late as 2012.
The Government needs to commit at least €1.5 billion per year to road building until all the projects are complete and not the estimated €1.3 billion the Minister is trying to secure for the next three years, a spokesman for the CIF said.
Since the programme was formulated many new roads have been added to the plan, and the cost of some projects has soared.
It was initially forecast that the Glen of the Downs motorway would cost €38 million, but this has increased to €85 million.
Over €1.26 billion will be spent in the current year on the programme, the highest provision for national roads in any one year in the history of the State. Mr Brennan said he had had talks with the Department of Finance on securing similar funding for road building for each of the next three years.
"Those discussions are at an advanced stage," he said. He claimed this "enveloping" of funds would insulate new road projects from any deterioration in public finances and would result in a significant increase in the rate of building in the next three years.
However, the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland (CCI) said while the Government billed yesterday's funding announcement as the road building project moving up a gear, the CCI "would look at it more in terms of simply moving from first to second gear".
The CCI chief executive, Mr John Dunne, said the national roads programme continued to be characterised by substantial cost and time overruns.
"On the funding side a serious gap has emerged with the [National Roads Authority] estimating that €14 billion will now be required to complete the national roads programme under the NDP . . . while the NDP itself only provides for €6 billion.
"Today's announcement of an additional €209 million for the roads programme for 2003 by the Minister must be analysed against this backdrop."
Fine Gael's spokesman on transport, Mr Denis Naughten, said yesterday's funding announcement compounded the large discrepancy in investment in the regions.
Four local authorities in Dublin have been allocated €445 million in the current year while Connacht counties have been allocated just €68 million, he said.
"The spatial strategy has prioritised Limerick and Galway as new growth centres, yet the Ennis bypass has again been shelved. So much for the regional balance."
Over €150 million will be spent on the seven new road projects in 2003.
A further €150 million will be spent on progressing 16 other major projects to tendering and construction stage and to advancing approximately 60 other projects at the planning and design stage.
The seven new construction projects are: the Dundalk Western bypass; the Carrickmacross bypass; the Kilcock/Kinnegad; Monasterevin bypass; the Naas Road (Kingswood Interchange); the Cashel bypass; and the Waterford city bypass.
