Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I have made the point on a number of occasions on why I would not reverse the decision on the tunnel, for reasons of finance, delays etc. I have another reason — I simply do not want those enormous trucks here. We looked at the situation in 12 countries including Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the USA, all of which have lower requirements. I do not see the reason or the need to have these enormous trucks on our roads. Quite simply the cost of them in terms of maintaining our roads and the damage is huge. The safety aspect of driving through our streets is also a major consideration.

My view in terms of the tunnel is that we are more than adequately equipped relative to most of our European competitors, in fact all of them. They are not above that figure. I know the Minister of State is currently involved with the Irish Road Haulage Association, in terms of getting an overall picture for the country. I am giving the Deputy my view, which I believe to be correct. One comes to a point where one makes a decision in these matters. Looking at international best practice, the height restrictions on the Dublin Port tunnel are adequately above the restrictions for tunnels in other countries.

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