Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The Minister should stay quiet; I have only two minutes. He had his opportunity at the weekend.

A sum of €500 million to National Toll Roads and a loss of revenue to the State estimated by DKM Consultants to be €900 million between now and 2020 totals €1.4 billion, which is the amount of money the Minister claims he will raise on the new tolls. The M50 is now a distributor road for Dublin. As well as this, the Secretary General of the Department of Transport informed the Committee of Public Accounts that 2,200 additional trucks will go on to the West Link bridge as soon as the port tunnel opens. This, she said, is the equivalent of 6,600 cars or the annual increase in the rate of traffic over the bridge.

The Minister's solution after 2008 is to buy NTR out and open four new tolls. What will happen in the two years between now and 2008?

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