Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

There has been no change since yesterday or from last week. There is no such arrangement. The National Roads Authority has made a number of arrangements, one of which is to terminate the discussions with National Toll Roads relating to the upgrading of the West Link toll facility. It was considered that a satisfactory commercial and strategic solution that met the objectives of the NRA for the development and management of the M50 could not be achieved. The NRA has tried for some considerable time to come to an agreement with NTR but those discussions have failed and the authority will not continue with them. The reason is that the NRA believes it would infringe on national and EU procurement rules and a number of other arrangements.

On the zero rate of the West Link toll from mid-2008 and compensation for NTR in accordance with the West Link agreement, which stands until 2020, it is the view of the NRA that the process will take about two years. First, it will carry out the strategic management examination of traffic flow on the M50, which, subject to my memory being correct, will be finished towards the end of this year, in October or November. Then it will invite tenders for electronic tolling on the M50 to replace the plaza arrangement in place and bring the tolling more into line with what is in other countries by using what is known as the Hong Kong model. Hong Kong was the first place to introduce electronic tolling, which is far more efficient. The NRA will invite tenders for the design, building and operation of a multi-point, free flow, barrier-free toll regime on the M50.

Any decisions are subject to two conditions: the carrying out of the full examination of traffic flow on the road and an examination of the kind of new arrangements that could be put in place. The NRA will have to come back to Government on this. I am not too sure when it will do so but——

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