Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Government's eleventh-hour announcement is welcome but, let us be honest, it was forced to act. It had absolutely no intention of making the announcement in the absence of a public backlash and political pressure. This whole farce comes from the absolutely ridiculous contracts entered into by Fianna Fáil years ago. I have been raising this issue here since I was elected in 2016 because Drogheda is the only town in Ireland with tolled slip roads. These have had a detrimental effect on the town. You have to pay a toll to get from one side of the town to the other, or from a retail park on one side of the town to the other side. If you do not pay it, you spend 40 minutes in traffic because lorries, HGVs and vans all drive through the town to avoid tolls. I have long campaigned for the removal of the slip road toll, but successive Governments have done nothing about it to date.

It is clear from the responses I have received over the years that the protection of the profits of the private companies is the Government's main priority. It would not even consider lifting the toll on the slip-roads during the Fleadh Cheoil in Drogheda because it would have meant compensating the companies for their loss of profit, as per their contracts. Working people do not get to demand pay increases due to inflation but the Government has ensured the companies that operate the tolls can do just that.

Celtic Roads Group operates the M1 between Gormanston, County Meath, and Ballymascanlon, County Louth. In 2021, a year of Covid-related travel restrictions, the group reported a pre-tax profit of €8.14 million on the toll. Some 12 million vehicles passed through the plaza at Julianstown last year. Celtic Roads Group paid out dividends of €9.25 million to its shareholders last year. Its shareholders are the Semperian group, a Britain-based asset-management business; DIF Capital Partners, an infrastructure equity fund manager based in the Netherlands; Royal BAM Group, which is based in the Netherlands, and PGGM, which manages Dutch occupational pension funds. Celtic Roads and its shareholders are clearly not suffering financial hardship, which is more than can be said for many of those who pass through the toll plaza every year. All we are asking for is that the Government stop the latest gouging of ordinary working people and not just kick the can. It should give certainty to people.

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