By Mike McKimm BBC Northern Ireland environment correspondent

Plans to slash spending on road repairs in Northern Ireland have been strongly criticised by the quarry industry.

Spending on road repairs has been cut by a third

They claim to have been misled by government over future plans and say they have wasted millions of pounds buying special equipment as a result.

In a recent draft budget for next year, the government cut spending on road repairs by more than a third.

The news comes at a time when the government's own Regional Transport Strategy was recommending minimum spending of �75m on repairs every year for the next 10 years.

Budget figures for next year suggest it could be just �58m.

The Quarry Products Association, which represents most of the quarries in Northern Ireland, is challenging the figures and the government's integrity over the way it has handled the budgeting for future maintenance.

"One of the RTS principal initiatives was the elimination of 75% of the road maintenance backlog," said association spokesman Gordon Best.

"The strategy stated that �780m of investment was required in road maintenance over the next ten years."

He said his members were concerned about their investment and the future of jobs in the industry as a result.

William McNabb is angry about the budget u-turn

William McNabb of Northstone Quarries has spent over �4m on Northern Ireland's biggest tarmac production plant.

He is angry about the budget u-turn after a meeting with Road Service about the future requirements, after he made the investment.

Budget cuts

"What am I going to do with the people I was going to employ?

"You have to question the wisdom, intelligence and integrity of government when they do things like that," he said.

Figures seen by the BBC suggest that the proposed budget cuts will continue with the maintenance spend for 2006/07 dropping to �45m - almost half the required spend, according to the transport strategy.

It is also believed that some specific areas, including motorway maintenance, have been cut to zero for the next three years, something that would have a substantial knock-on effect with the quarry and road maintenance industries.

Another problem is claims from motorists when their cars are damaged by bad roads.

These claims have been dropping but the quarry industry suggest they will start to rise again as the roads deteriorate.