Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

I have overall responsibility for policy and funding in respect of the national roads. The implementation of any individual road project is a matter for the National Roads Authority under the Roads Acts.

In addition, the statutory power to levy tolls on national roads, make toll by-laws and enter into toll agreements with private investors in respect of national roads is vested in the NRA under Part V of the Roads Act 1993, as amended by the Planning and Development Act 2000 and the Roads Act 2007.

I understand from the NRA that, in common with similar such systems around the world, there have inevitably been some initial difficulties with the M50 system. These include difficulties getting through to the customer service call centre and errors where the wrong person has been billed for a toll.

However, it is important to put these problems into context. The volume of calls to the call centre has far exceeded all predictions and the number of billing errors is less than one half of one per cent of all traffic. The NRA and its toll operator, eFlow, are working hard to put in place measures that will correct these problems.

With the system in operation for only a short period, it is still too early to comment with any degree of certainty on many aspects of its implementation. However, early indications are that overall it is operating successfully. Take-up on the electronic registration system has exceeded expectations and traffic flow has improved significantly on the route, thus making a positive contribution towards the easing of congestion for all road users.

I am assured by the NRA that the initial difficulties are being addressed and that within a matter of weeks the NRA expects these difficulties to have been, if not entirely eliminated — which would be somewhat of a miracle — substantially alleviated. My officials will continue to monitor the situation as we have done since it started operation.

In those circumstances, I do not propose to use my powers under section 41 of the Roads Act 1993 to make a direction to the NRA in this matter.

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