Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The increase in tolls came as a bolt out of the blue for everyone, including Government, today. I am probably the only Deputy in this Chamber who does not have to go through a toll to get to Leinster House. I am looking at the M7, M8 and M9. We are all used to paying tolls. The M50 and the Dublin Port Tunnel are in my county.

This is not about tolling as a revenue raiser. Nobody likes paying tolls but it is accepted across the world as a way of paying for a road system. This is not about raising money for climate or congestion measures. It would be a totally different argument if it was. This is raising tolls to the maximum allowable under the existing contract by eight private companies in PPPs with the State for the running of a toll road system and the M50, which is wholly State-owned. The M50 brought in €140 million in revenue last year, which was a year of curtailed movement and economic activity, and €1.2 billion over the past ten years. These are huge revenue raisers for the State for reinvestment in our road network.

What has happened now is just a undefined and unexplained grab for the maximum allowable revenue by these companies under the guise of keeping up with inflation. We have an Oireachtas transport committee, a Committee of Public Accounts and the Dáil. We have spokespeople who can be contacted directly. We have plenty of opportunities for TII to come to us and say "we know we are in a cost-of-living crisis but these companies feel they need to raise that" and to let us interrogate that. I do not believe they need to raise tolls. The Tánaiste said today that he is not happy with it, that it caught him by surprise and that now this has been announced, the Government will engage. I hope that as the sun sets and rises tomorrow, the Government does not think this has moved on and that people will just absorb another ten, 20 or 30 cent increase in their tolls. I will use my local example. If you have to travel from Swords to Ballymount to go through the M50 every day, that is €110 to €120 per month for tolling alone excluding fuel costs, which as we know, have increased by 60% to 70% over the past year. We know the external reasons for the increase in the price of fuel. We will not go into them. However, this is something the State has a direct interest in and can influence and control. I know the Minister of State does not have responsibility for this but we cannot just have a script that mentions the contract and TII. The Government can act here. It can contact TII. TII will accept a phone call. The Government can engage with these companies.

People are making micro-savings in their weekly budgets to put food on their table and heat their homes. Everything is down to the euro and the cent so this makes a big difference. This cannot just be allowed to slip through. There should be a price freeze. I want to be clear that this is not about tolling in general. It is about this toll and this price increase.

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