Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

This legislation deals with barrier-free tolling and other matters. Surely the only contribution the Government could make to road construction and traffic management would be to move away from it altogether. To ascertain what the problems are, all one need do is go down to the M50 and sit there. One can park there all day, but it is not even free since one must pay to pass through. It is extraordinary that, through an inability to improve the way that we meet our modern need for roads, we have, as Deputies Sheehan, Reilly and others have said, allowed daftness to prevail.

For example, the Dublin Port tunnel cannot accommodate tall trucks. It could only happen here that a tunnel could be designed for the needs of modern traffic at a time when roads across the country are chock-a-block, only for us to decide that it should accept only trucks below a certain height. Our answer has been to ban all others from the country. That is crazy and could only have happened here. Another anomaly is that we cannot bring buses into the tunnel without passing legislation. How did that happen? How did we reach a situation where the smallest and simplest things require legislation?

The Minister will put paid to all that, however, since, with a wave of his pen — at his whim, depending on whether he has enjoyed sweet dreams the previous night — he may now impose tolls. That will happen regardless of people's wishes and without consultation. It is nice that he may now do so. It is almost a kind of royal command performance. I doubt whether such proclamations represent progress. Those of us who served on local authorities, long ago or more recently, feel that we should take stock of what is happening and ask ourselves a serious question.

I recently visited Portugal to consider its road-building campaign. In four or five years, that country has opened motorways everywhere. They pass over mountains and through valleys, with various viaducts. The Portuguese have built a road system that is second to none. They have not produced something that is three quarters of the way there, but an excellent six-lane motorway all over the country. They have built up their transport and communications infrastructure to bring all parts of their country together.

We have not yet done so, despite our proclaiming that we have achieved great things. The Irish road transport system is appalling, yet we have a very high degree of dependence on it. For some unknown reason, no one seems to have thought about it. The population is rising, and one can see how many trucks are on the roads if one goes driving early in the morning. We presume that our introduction of barrier-free tolling is a great thing for society. They have had that for some time everywhere else and people can simply drive through. Why we must legislate for that at this stage I do not know.

It would have been a great gesture if, four or five years ago, the tolls that caused so many logjams, especially on the M50, had been abolished. To have lifted those barriers and let people drive through would have been a concession to society, the hard-pressed motorist and the overtaxed citizen. At some point we must give them a break. In return for all the long delays, we are heavily taxed regarding tyres, cars and the VRT that we pay on them. In case there is any possibility of our escaping, we are hammered at the toll bridges. As recompense, we have the privilege of waiting. We need Valium to soothe our shattered nerves, so long have we waited.

The Bill refers in passing to various issues now so obvious that the very dogs in the street bark their awareness. The fact seems to have escaped us that, apart from the famous Transport 21, there has been no overall plan. The phrase was trotted out so often during the general election that it seems to have lost its meaning.

Several factors are relevant to our quality and way of life. Ireland does not have a road system developed during the Industrial Revolution, and neither did we get one in the 1960s or 1970s. Other countries provided for such development and they do not share our problems with traffic. There is no use in throwing up our arms and saying that the situation is serious. We are a very small country with exceptional traffic problems. Other, smaller countries with bigger populations have managed to solve the problem. They did so by a variety of means, drawing on all available alternatives rather than relying on a single transport system.

With the Green Party in Government, one might expect to see those various options now being brought forward. I am not sure that a police motorcycle escort is necessarily a step in the right direction. I would not advise the Minister of State opposite, Deputy Tony Killeen, to indulge in that type of fantasy. I do not know that his constituents would advise it either.

I want to see something realistic in terms of the development of those alternatives and putting them in place so as not to waste any more money or time and infuriate the taxpayer to a greater extent than he or she has already been infuriated. We must now look at the options.

One can move goods and people from one point to another by road or rail and by public or private transport. I do not know the extent to which attention has been given to the transportation of goods by rail, although much has been said about it in passing. If it is to happen, there must be serious investment in rail of which I have not seen evidence certainly in my time in this House. It will require a much more ambitious plan than Transport 21. It will mean the heavy goods vehicles on the roads will travel by a different means. It is possible but requires serious investment and planning. God love us all on this little island of ours but serious planning is not one of our strong suits. It took a long time for us to stop the water coming into that little old tunnel about which we spoke a few moments ago. We have not yet been able to build a swimming pool in which we can keep water. We have difficulties in the planning area. If we are to see a shift from road to rail transport in terms of the transportation of goods, we need to see the plan which does not exist at present. Various logistics must be addressed in terms of roads and bridges. Either it is possible or it is not but we should be told.

The greatest opportunity available to us is road passenger transport. As Deputy Michael Fitzpatrick, my constituency colleague, will readily agree, the commuter rail service presents itself as the best we can achieve in terms of an answer to road traffic congestion for commuters. However, it must be to the benefit and convenience of the commuter and not the transport provider. That means the train service must be at a time and frequency which will suit the commuter, which will shift 1,000 people at one time and which will ensure 1,000 people are not stuck in their cars on the M50 or elsewhere. There would be huge benefits if that was pursued to the extent it could be. If the extent to which that could be achieved is maximised by way of forward planning and financial provision, it would be a good thing, as would Transport 21 and this Bill.

I expect the Green Party in Government will play a major role in providing these alternatives. I know Green Party Members are a little bit reluctant to come into the House at present. Shyness comes with recent promotion. It is normal in this country.

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