Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

——I understand that there was a debate on this on Thursday last. The Minister is anxious to ensure that the Bill is enacted before we rise. The principal purpose of the Bill is to provide the necessary statutory basis to facilitate the implementation of freeflow open road tolling on toll-based national road schemes. It also provides for redesignation of certain high-quality dual-carriageways as motorways, the provision of service and rest areas on the national road network, some technical amendments to various sections of the Roads Act 1993, a number of amendments to the Taxi Regulation Act 2003 and the making of by-laws to deal with the issue of parking at sport stadia on event days. We wish to take it today.

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