Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Other members are much more connected to the haulage world than I am but I have a point to make in that regard. When the N4 was completed, I recall driving towards Enfield and seeing a large number of trucks heading off the M50 and going through the town to avoid the toll plaza. I presume haulage companies have to pay those drivers for the extra hour for which they are stuck in Kinnegad or wherever. Could a mechanism be developed, like what is done with the port tunnel, whereby it could be made to suit everybody, including the haulage industry and the people living in the towns in questions, for the haulage company drivers to be on the motorways and out of those smaller towns? It costs me €2 or €3 to get my car through the toll but I do not know how much it costs haulage drivers to go through it. I have never driven a truck and I do not pay attention to the signage other than to check what I have to pay. If it costs them a fiver or tenner, perhaps it is worthwhile for the drivers to go through the town because the company is not paying them enough to justify paying the toll charge. Does it not make sense to look at those schemes and see how an arrangement can be made in everybody's interest, including that of the haulage industry and the people living in the towns, to have more drivers using the motorway and paying some kind of toll, even if it is half the current charge?