Seán Conlan (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Gavin spoke about the whole of the North being exempt. I know there are difficulties with the way the UK legislation has been framed. I agree that it would be impractical to suggest that certain roads should be exempt. It would be impossible to police. I have heard certain trunk routes in the North, including the A2, the A3, the A4 and the A5, being mentioned as if they were golden routes. All of these port-to-port routes are important. No one specific route is more important than another. The imposition of this charge on all of them will have serious consequences for transport across the Border. We need to think more widely about this. We should not focus solely on the routes that have been mentioned. The focus must be much wider than that. The only way to deal with this is to provide for a block exemption. As this cannot be done through the present legislation, an amendment will have to be introduced or a wider solution will have to be found.