Roads Budget 2011-2014 and Leo's Work Priorities

Sponge Bob

Thanks to Leo for putting his briefing online

http://www.transport.ie/upload/general/13086-MINISTERS_BRIEF_SCANNED_VERSION-0.PDF

A lot of this document is about tourism etc, The Roads section is around page 48 of 322 on, here is a dirty OCR I made.

PPP MARKETS
The successful awarding of a major PPP contract involving private funding is challenging at any
time but is particularly challenging in current circumstances where Ireland has been the subject
of intervention by the IMF/EU. Until financial credibility is restored the international debt
funding market will be reluctant to lend funds to finance projects in Ireland, the repayment of
which is ultimately dependant on the Irish state.
The original Transport Capital Programme as envisaged under T21 included a figure of over €S
billion from the private sector through the PPP procurement of certain roads and public
transport projects. ·To date approx. €2 billion of private sector funding has been secured, all of
which has been secured for the First Roads PPP Programme. This programme has delivered the
following 9 road improvement schemes; -
• M1 Dundalk Western Bypass
• M4 l<i|cocl<·Enfield— Kinnegacl Bypass
• M8 Rathcormac to Fermoy Bypass
• N25 Waterford City Bypass
• N6 Galway to Balllnasloe Scheme
• N7/NS Portlaoise—Cullahill/Castletown
• M3 C|onee—l<el|s
• N7 Limerick Tunnel Scheme
M50 Upgrade Phase 2
After the award of contracts under the 1st PPP roads programme and following on from a
review of the Transport 21 Programme the NRA was authorised in January 2008 to deliver a
2nd roads programme with a capital value of €1bi|iion by way of unitary payment (i.e. non·
tolledj PPPs.
Four schemes were identified by the NRA as suitable candidates for development as unitary
payment (non -to||ed) PPP schemes. Two of these projects, the M17/18 Gort—Tuam and the N11
Arklow-Rathnew/N7 Newlands Cross PPP bypasses have progressed to tender stage. The Gort to
Tuam PPP is at the stage of negotiations with the preferred bidder but due to concern in the
capital markets regarding lre|and’s overall Hnancial situation the NRA has so far been unable to
finalise negotiations. EIB support was secured mid 2010 for both projects.
The NRA is continuing to work with tenderers on these contracts and is still hopeful of
concluding at least one ofthe contracts by end 2011 but at a higher overall cost.
On the public transport side Metro North, the tunnel element of the Dart Underground
Programme, Metro West and the Luas to Lucan were to be procured as PPPs. However due to
cutbacks in capital funds to 2014, priority has been given to Metro North which has planning
approval and is at an advanced stage of procurement. Timelines for Dart Underground tunnel,

Metro West and Lucan Luas are under review. The EIB has committed to provide up to €50O
million for Metro North.
There is however an external risk to the Metro North PPP given the current economic
circumstances and the recent International Monetary Fund and EU intervention in Ireland, The
current programme for Metro North envisages the project reaching financial close in late 2012
with engagement with debt funders required in late 2011 or early 2012.
Financial close for the Metro North PPP will be dependent on lreland’s financial credibility
internationally and on the prevailing position of the international funding markets towards
providing funding to Irish infrastructure at that time. {See Metro North Key Issues note below
for more detail),
ROADS
A. EMERGENCY ROAD REPAIRS
National Roads
The NRA has been allocated a total of €866.963 million for National roads in 2011. This includes
€72O m for capital works, €42.9 m for maintenance works and €89.7 rn for PPP unitary
payments, It has assigned €10O million from its capital works amount towards pavement
improvement works and it should be able to deal with any necessary repairs (on national roads)
resulting from damage due to recent severe weather from within this sum.
Regional and Local Roads
A sum of €375.176 million has been allocated for regional and local roads (RLR). Overall the RLR
funding for 2011 is down 9% on 2010. The backlog of repair work prior to the recent severe
weather was estimated at approximately €2.7 billion. The recent damage suffered by the RLR
network will require the current year grant allocations to be directed towards repairing the
recently damaged roads and will allow no progress to be made in respect of the backlog of work.
In the 2011 RLR grants there is an increased focus on directing funding towards repair and
maintenance works with over 85% of the grant monies to be spent on such works. The amount
of money directed towards major new projects has been reduced. Discretion has been given to
local authorities to revise their 3-year restoration (strengthening) programmes to assist them in
targeting the repair of the recently damaged roads. Local authorities have been allocated €1O
million to assist with the costs of Winter Maintenance (see also section on Emergency Planning
which deals with salt management).
B. A5 PROJECT (NORTH WEST GATEWAY TO AUGHNACLOY)
In the context of the St. Andrew‘s Agreement the Government made a commitment to provide
£400/€5S0 million to a roads investment package for Northern Ireland which includes the
upgrading of the A5 road from Aughnacloy to Derry/Letterkenny to dual-carriageway standard.
Work commenced in 2007 and to date all project milestones have been met on schedule. The A5
project milestone and payment schedule envisages construction starting in 2012 and finishing in
2015.
An initial payment of €9 million from the Irish Government’s contribution was made in 2009
following selection of the Preferred Route for the road. The next payment of E11 sterling was
triggered by the third project milestone — Publication of Draft Orders and Environmental
Statement- achieved in November 2010. The payment schedule envisages the payment being
made in July 2011 subject to the agreed procedures governing the payment. As part of this
procedure an agreed progress report on the project prepared by the Cross Border Steering
Group was reviewed by the NSMC Transport Sector at its meeting on 9th February 2011. The

next step will be approval of the payment by the NSMC Plenary meeting scheduled for June
2011.
The Department's Four Year Plan provides for a scheduled drawdown in 2012 on reaching the
fourth project milestone. No specific provision has been made in this Department's allocations
for scheduled drawdowns for subsequent years to 2016. The Department of Finance has
indicated that it is envisaged that payments will be met from within the overall Government
capital envelope. The anticipated spend profile for 2013 and 2014 is Stg£10 million and Stg£130
million respectively. Further payments of Stg£120 million and £118 million are anticipated in
2015 and 2016.
C. MOTORWAY SERVICE AREAS
Originally the NRA proposed up to 12 service areas on the Major Interurban Routes as well as
two others are proposed for the N6/N18junction on the Western Road Corridor and on the N11
near Gorey. Service areas are intended to offer food/convenience retail services, toilets and
showers as well as extensive car, coach/HGV parking and Garda enforcement areas. Privately
constructed or operated services areas are not required to provide all ofthese facilities.
The first three service areas opened in 2010 (on the M1 and M4). The NRA has planning
permission for four more at Athlone (N6), Cashel (M8), Kilcullen (M9) and Gorey (M11). The
Gorey Service Station is due to be constructed as part of the N11 Rathnew/Arklow and N7
Newlands Cross Junction Improvement Schemes (a PPP).
While the previous Minister indicated to the NRA that it should seek non - Exchequer funding
for delivering further service areas, the Minister did clear the purchase by the NRA of sites
where planning approval had been obtained with a view to then testing the market for private
sector development on these sites. NRA is currently evaluating the option of attracting private
sector interest by bundling the development/operation of three service areas i.e. Athlone,
Kilcullen and Gorey. In relation to Cashel, recent media reports indicate that Topaz and
McDona|d’s will open a service station on the M8 at Cashel in late May this year. NRA has
deferred a decision on Cashel in view of this.
D. TOLLING -· FUTURE STRATEGY
Statutory powers in relation to tolling are vested in the National Roads Authority (NRA) under
Part V of the Roads Act 1993 (as amended by the Planning and Development Act 2000 and the
Roads Act 2007). At present there are eleven toll schemes in operation in Ireland. The NRA is
responsible forten ofthese schemes.
In 2010, the Local Government Efficiency Review Group recommended the introduction of new
tolling schemes on national roads, both new and existing, based on an equitable distribution of
tolling points across the national network, with a proportion of revenue being used to invest in
local and regional roads. The Infrastructure Investment Priorities document 2010·2016 also
referred to the possible introduction of further tolling on national roads and recommended that
any additional income generated through tolling should be retained by the National Roads
Authority to help fund on-going road investment.
In light of these recommendations, the NRA examined options for a new tolling strategy. Their
preliminary report on options for a future tolling strategy was presented to the then Minister in
November 2010. At this point, however, no decisions have been made in relation to additional
tolling. The NRA is currently undertaking further scoping work on tolling options taking into
account relevant EU legislation.

Sponge Bob

Of the €4.8 bn theoretically available some €1.7bn is already spent leaving only €3.1bn for the next 3 years across airports roads trains and ports

Of that €1.7bn some €800m is retention payments on roads that are already built and opened.

By my estimate in reading this ( and bolding the key bits ) only €520m is available for non PPP national road capital expenditures over the next 4 years being €1,820 Total - the €1.3bn committed already.

CAPITAL INVESTMENT PROGRAMME
Economic Difficulties and Reduced Allocations
Transport 21 (T21) was the 10-year capital investment framework established in 2005 to provide
for the development of transport infrastructure. At the launch of T21, a €34 billion investment
package was announced which comprised €26 billion to be provided by the Exchequer and €8
billion by Public Private Partnership {PPP) funding.
In the first 5 years of T21 Exchequer expenditure amounted to a total of over €10.5 billion.
T21 Expenditure 2006-2010* _'__
vear w 2007 2008 W 2010 Total
€billion 1.937 2.357 2.504 2.124 1.730 10.652
In addition, the 1“ PPP roads programme resulted in private sector funding of approx. €2 billion
Arising from the allocation under the National Recovery Plan in November 2010, a breakdown of
the reduced transport capital investment programme for 2011-2014 is as follows:
_ 2011 2012 2013 2014 mai
€m €rn €m €m €m
Public Transport 394 392 527 493 1,806
swans @ sas 510 asc 2,865
Other 54 S2 38 28 172
mai 1,438 Q 1,075 1,001 4,aaa
Note - Summary of Reductions:
The original exchequer allocation provided for T21 has been subject to a number of adjustments totalling
approx. €7 billion between 2008-2014 as follows:
2008-2010: total reductions of approx. €1 billion were implemented.
2011-2014: total reductions of almost €6 billion have been proposed for the four years covered by the
National Recovery Plan.
Committed Expenditure
Of the €4.843 billion allocated for 2011-2014, it is estimated that in the region of €1.7 billion of
this is contractually committed. Approximately €1.3 billion of this relates to committed
expenditure for national roads including approx. €800 million relating to closeout payments for
national roads projects recently completed. Over €300 million relates to committed
expenditure for public transport projects.
In addition, a significant portion of the overall transport capital investment programme is
essential for on-going annual expenditure programmes such as railway safety (€400 million),
road rehabilitation / maintenance (approx. €9OO million for regional & local roads), Coastguard
1 Expenditure between 2008 — 2010 reflected various cuts in the capital allocation for T21 projects
totalling approx. €1 billion.
Economic Difficulties and Reduced Allocations
Transport 21 (T21) was the 10-year capital investment framework established in 2005 to provide
for the development of transport infrastructure. At the launch of T21, a €34 billion investment
package was announced which comprised €26 billion to be provided by the Exchequer and €8
billion by Public Private Partnership {PPP) funding.
In the first 5 years of T21 Exchequer expenditure amounted to a total of over €10.5 billion.
T21 Expenditure 2006-2010* _'__
vear w 2007 2008 W 2010 Total
€billion 1.937 2.357 2.504 2.124 1.730 10.652
In addition, the 1“ PPP roads programme resulted in private sector funding of approx. €2 billion
Arising from the allocation under the National Recovery Plan in November 2010, a breakdown of
the reduced transport capital investment programme for 2011-2014 is as follows:
_ 2011 2012 2013 2014 mai
€m €rn €m €m €m
Public Transport 394 392 527 493 1,806
swans @ sas 510 asc 2,865
Other 54 S2 38 28 172
mai 1,438 Q 1,075 1,001 4,aaa
Note - Summary of Reductions:
The original exchequer allocation provided for T21 has been subject to a number of adjustments totalling
approx. €7 billion between 2008-2014 as follows:
2008-2010: total reductions of approx. €1 billion were implemented.
2011-2014: total reductions of almost €6 billion have been proposed for the four years covered by the
National Recovery Plan.
Committed Expenditure
Of the €4.843 billion allocated for 2011-2014, it is estimated that in the region of €1.7 billion of
this is contractually committed. Approximately €1.3 billion of this relates to committed
expenditure for national roads including approx. €800 million relating to closeout payments for
national roads projects recently completed. Over €300 million relates to committed
expenditure for public transport projects.
In addition, a significant portion of the overall transport capital investment programme is
essential for on-going annual expenditure programmes such as railway safety (€400 million),
road rehabilitation / maintenance (approx. €9OO million for regional & local roads), Coastguard
1 Expenditure between 2008 — 2010 reflected various cuts in the capital allocation for T21 projects
totalling approx. €1 billion.

Search & Rescue (€30 million), maintaining progress on accessibility (€5O million) and traffic
management projects (€12O million).
Existing Capital Investment Priorities 2011-2014
Public Transport
A total ofjust over €1.8 billion has been provided for public transport projects in the National
Recovery Plan.
• Metro North is the major component of the public transport allocation. Enabling works
for Metro North are scheduled to commence in 2011 and the procurement process is
continuing.
• It will now not be possible to deliver the tunnel element of the DART Underground
programme in the immediate period. However, provision has been made for funding
some of the re-signalling and associated works, which have capacity benefits in and of
themselves.
· Funding will continue to be provided for vital public transport programmes such as
railway safety, traffic management, accessibility and real time passenger information
across the country. In Dublin the Luas extension to Citywest will be completed in 2011
and a new public transport bridge at Marlborough Street will commence construction.
• Planning will continue on a range of other public transport projects including Luas BXD,
the cross-city link, Luas extensions to Lucan and Bray, Metro West and the DART
Underground tunnel.
• Funding will also be provided for the purchase of new buses for PSO services.
• Further progress on Phase 2 of the Western Rail Corridor will be dependent on a review
of the performance of Phase 1 and a full economic assessment of Phase 2.
Roads .
There is funding of €1,820 million for national roads and €1,045 million available for regional &
local roads over the next four years.
• NRA have adequate money for rehabilitation and minor works in 2011 and will go ahead
with the planned 2011 starts including Belturbet, Longford and Tralee bypasses , N4
Downes grade separation and the Cork Southern Ring Road junctions. Two PPP projects
are also scheduled to start in 2011; the M17/18 Gort — Tuam PPP and lvl11/Newlands
Cross PPP bypasses.
• No major schemes are likely to start in 2012 or 2013 due to the shortage of funds. Due
to the reduction in funding from 2013 NRA plans to focus on maintenance of existing
assets and the incremental improvement of national secondary roads.
Other Funding
• €172 million has been earmarked for other projects over the next four years. Almost
half of this will be provided to support Smarter Travel Policy measures, mainly
comprising of investment in exemplary cycling and walking infrastructure.
• Just over €50 million is being provided to Maritime and Irish Coast Guard projects; the
main focus of this investment being the cost of a new build S92 Helicopter for the Irish
Coast Guard (IRCG) Search and Rescue (SAR) helicopter service and payments in respect
of remedial works being carried out at regional harbours.
• In addition, €2O million in total is being provided in 2011 and 2012 to partially fund the
Cross-Border A5 Road (North West Gateway to Aughnacloyj project.

ardmacha

Thanks to Leo for putting his briefing online

http://www.transport.ie/upload/gener..._VERSION-0.PDF

Scans of crappy documents are an amateurish way to put things online and does not bode well for professional approach for the actual projects.

Thanks Sponge Bob for the OCR.

Sponge Bob

On to Page 141 of 322 for more detail, this document is quite refreshing as it simply sticks to the facts not the greasy shyte spun in answers to PQs in the Dáil or in some annual report or other.

The Transport Investment Division

Assistant Secretary: John Murphy
Principal Officer: Doreen Keaney
Principal Advisor: Dominic Mullaney
Overview
The Transport Investment Division was established in 2010 amalgamating four Divisions
involved in the delivery of investment in transport:
1. Capital investment programme monitoring,
2. Publictransportinvestment,
3. Roads investment,
4. EU Funding programme
Key responsibilities:
• To provide an appropriate policy and funding framework for investment in transport
• To manage the Departments capital envelope including monitoring, evaluation,
communication and reporting on agencies, projects and spend
The Division also oversees / supports Cross Border transport initiatives and provides support for
the implementation of the Sustainable Travel and Transport Action Plan.
ln 2011 the Division will oversee a capital budget of €1,438 million for investment in transport
(mainly for roads and public transport projects) and a current budget of €251,539 million to
cover maintenance grants for National Roads, Regional & Local Roads, for PPP Operational
payments and for NRA administration.
ln delivering the transport investment programme the Division works closely with a number of
state agencies primarily the National Transport Authority (NTA), Railway Procurement Agency
(RPA), Irish Rail and the National Roads Authority (NRA). Since the establishment ofthe NTA in
2009 responsibility for funding the construction of public transport infrastructure, promoting an
integrated public transport system in the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) falls within the remit of the
NTA. They oversee and liaise closely with Irish Rail, Dublin Bus, RPA and local authorities
regarding investment for public transport within the overall framework set by Government
under relevant strategic investment programmes such as T21 and the National Development
Plan.
The work of the EU Progranmes Unit is expected to conclude mid — 2011 with the expected closure of
the relevant programmes. .

1. CAPITAL INVESTMENT PROGRAMME
Key Issues in this area are · f
1. Economic Difficu|ties/ Reduced Allocations 2. Committed Expenditure 3. Capital Investment
Priorities 2011-2014 _
Please see separate Key lssues brief at ( already posted by SB) Section 3. Mn __
Transport 21 Funding
Transport 21 (T21) is the capital investment framework agreed by Government for the
development of transport infrastructure for the period 2006 to 2015. At the launch of T21, a €34
billion investment package was announced which comprised:
• €26 billion to be provided by the Exchequer and €8 billion by Public Private Partnership
(PPP) funded projects of which;
· €18 billion to be invested in the national roads programme and €16 billion to be
invested in public transport projects and regional airports
• the National Programme to receive in the order of €20 billion and the Greater Dublin
Area Programme to receive in the order of €14 billion
In the first 5 years of T21 Exchequer expenditure amounted to a total of over €10.5 billion.
T21 Expenditure 2006-2010° __ _ ____
veal m 2007 zoos W 2010 Total
€bi||ion 1.937 2.357 2.504 2.124 1.730 —__10.652
In addition, the 1” PPP roads programme resulted in private sector funding of approx. €2 billion
Economic Difficulties and Reduced Allocations
Arising from the allocation under the National Recovery Plan in November 2010, a breakdown of
the reduced transport capital investment programme for 2011-2014 is as follows:
2011 2012 2014 Total
€m €m €m €m
Public Transport 394 392 527 493 1,806
Roads Q ass 510 480 2,865
Other 54 52 38 28 172
Total 1,438 1,329 1,075 1,001 4,843
The original exchequer allocation provided for T21 has been subject to a number of adjustments
totalling approx. €7 billion between 2008~2014 as follows:
• 2008-2010: total reductions of approx. €1 billion were implemented.
• 2011-2014: total reductions of almost €6 billion have been proposed for the four years
covered by the National Recovery Plan.
Committed Expenditure
° Expenditure between 2008 - 2010 reflected various cuts in the capital allocation for T21 projects
totalling approx. €1 billion.

Of the €4.843 billion allocated for 2011»2014, it is estimated that in the region of€1.7 billion of
this is contractually committed. Approximately €1.3 billion of this relates to committed
expenditure for national roads including approx. €800 million relating to closeout payments for
national roads projects recently completed. Over €300 million relates to committed
expenditure for public transport projects.
In addition, a significant portion of the overall transport capital investment programme is
essential for on—going annual expenditure programmes such as railway safety (€400 million),
road rehabilitation / maintenance (approx. €90O million for regional & local roads), Coastguard
Search & Rescue (€3O million), maintaining progress on accessibility (€50 million) and traffic
management projects (€120 million).
Capital Investment Priorities 2011-2014
Having successfully focused on the delivery of major roads infrastructure over the initial phase
of T21, it was always the intention that the emphasis on new projects would shift significantly to
public transport in the later stages ofthe programme. It was intended that the ratio of
expenditure on new T21 projects between public transport and the national roads programme
would be 2:1 in favour of public transport following the completion of payments for the major
motorways programme in 2011. Due to the deteriorating economic circumstances, it will not
now be possible to achieve a 2:1 ratio in favour of public transport during the period 2011-2014.
However, the level of investment in public transport infrastructure will increase while roads
investment correspondingly reduces from 2012 (see table above).
Implementation Arrangements
In the main, responsibility for delivery ofT21 projects from design/planning through seeking
approvals, procurement and implementation rests with the Departments State agencies as
follows:
• National Transport Authority (NTA) · Since its establishment at the end of 2009 the NTA
is responsible for financing the construction of public transport infrastructure in the
Greater Dublin Area (GDA). The Department provides funding to the NTA which it then
allocates to projects based on priorities identified in T21/ National Recovery Plan and
having regard to its role in promoting an integrated public transport network.
• Iarrirod Eireann - lntercity, commuter and suburban rail services
• Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) -Luas and Metro networks
• National Roads Authority (NRA) · National roads projects.
The Department of Transport directly administers some capital funding in relation to Smarter
Travel Policy, Maritime and Irish Coast Guard projects and various requirements in relation to
regional airports, road safety, vehicle and driver licensing measures. [Further details available
from relevant Divisional Briefs]
Appraisal and Monitoring of Projects
All capital projects are required to be properly appraised in line with the Department of Finance
Capital Appraisal Guidelines and all projects costing over €3O million require a Cost Benefit
Analysis (CBA) to be carried out. Since 2007, the Department has engaged auditors to
implement an extensive audit programme to ensure that the State agencies with responsibility
for implementing projects are compliant with the Department of Finance Capital Appraisal

Guidelines and \/alue for Money requirements. All projects and programmes being funded
under T21 are also monitored by the Department of Transport and the Transport 21 Monitoring
Group to ensure that value for money is obtained at all times, that the projects are subject to
cost-benefit analyses and proper evaluation and that they are implemented according to best
practice and Government guidelines. The Transport 21 Monitoring Group was established in
2006 to oversee the implementation of T21. The Group which is chaired by the Department of
Transport comprises senior officials from the Departments of Transport, Finance, Taoiseach and
Environment Heritage and Local Government, as well as the National Development Finance
Agency. The Chief Executives of each of the implementing agencies (RPA, NRA, CIE Group and
NTA) attend the meetings. The Committee meets every 6 months to oversee the
implementation of T21 in accordance with the Government Decision approving T21.
Department of Transport - Capital Investment Programme 2011-2014



** It is proposed that the 2013 and 2014 costs ofthe upgrading of the A5 road from Aughnacloy to
Derry will be met from the overall capital envelope {See Section 3 ·- Key Issues Brief- Land
Transport Issues — Roads] ( already posted SB)

dubhthach

ardmacha wrote: »

Scans of crappy documents are an amateurish way to put things online and does not bode well for professional approach for the actual projects.

Thanks Sponge Bob for the OCR.

True but it's safer when you "black out" parts of the text. One of the US federal bodies got in trouble couple years ago when they released PDF's with black out sections. Turns out the text was still there under the black, you just had to "Copy-paste" it to retrieve it from document.

If you black it out, and then scan it in crap way you guaranteed that people can't figure out what's under the "blacked-out" sections

ardmacha

If you black it out, and then scan it in crap way you guaranteed that people can't figure out what's under the "blacked-out" sections

There are solutions to this problem. I suspect the mandarins would rather that nothing was released than make an effort to get a system to release documents with short sections redacted. In the spirit of open government they should buy some software for the job.

Sponge Bob

Here is the DUMB Irish Civil servants guide to proper redaction .

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/acrobat-tips-and-tricks/remove-sensitive-information-using-redaction-tools/

oharach

ardmacha wrote: »

Scans of crappy documents are an amateurish way to put things online and does not bode well for professional approach for the actual projects.

Thanks Sponge Bob for the OCR.

To be fair to Leo, he didn't write the document – it's a civil service brief on his new job. Clearly it was cobbled together by multiple authors, given his three responsibilities, but it seems impartial and accurate from what I've read, which is exactly what the civil service should be offering a new Minister. The priorities he sets for the department and the culture he instils will determine how effective it is, and he shouldn't be judged on that yet, but even the decision to publish his brief reflects positively.

Sponge Bob

The section on Current Spending ( not Capital and including Roads) is Here

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=71474455&postcount=9

I reckon any current spending saved from their being no PPPs over the next 5 years will be diverted into maintenance.


There are other fragments on roads dotted hither and thither anywhere from pages 1 to 230. Enjoy finding them yeerselves

EG The Leinster Outer Orbital is dead save where they _may_ choose to do fragments of it in future and the NRA will become TII of course after amalgamation with the RPA this year.

On a related note we might as well close this sub forum today.