Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the fact that the Government was forced into a U-turn on the proposed introduction of the charges. The charges have been deferred for six months but should be scrapped completely as there is no justification for them. The cost-of-living crisis is still with us and will be with us in June 2023. People from all walks of life are feeling the pinch. If it is not a case of extortionately high rents and food costs, it is a case of high electricity and gas costs, an increase in petrol prices and a battle against inflation. In the midst of the hardship people are experiencing, the Government wants to increase the cost of road tolls.

It has been suggested that the price hike is to ensure road maintenance but it is evident that it is more about allowing the operators' profits to keep pace with inflation. The Tánaiste suggested these are the first price increases in nine years. They are not. In Limerick, the Limerick tunnel has been tolled. The price increased in the past 12 months, from €1.90 to €2. Even if people decided en massenot to use the tunnel, the operator would still get paid through the traffic guarantee clauses. These ensure the taxpayers pay if an agreed-upon number of vehicles do not use the road. For Limerick Tunnel, the baseline is 17,000 vehicles per day. In 2021, taxpayers paid €8.4 million to the operator because of the clauses. From June 2019 to June 2020, the taxpayers paid €7 million. As my colleague Deputy O'Rourke said, over the lifetime of the tunnel, we will pay €200 million approximately in taxpayers' money to the operator. Each way, the taxpayer and consumer will lose. When Limerick tunnel was built, the State was awash with money, so the Fianna Fáil Government committed to giving it away through cowboy deals with road tunnel operators.

Tolling the Limerick tunnel or the M3 never made sense. Taxpayers are left to foot the bill when these roads are underused. The Government actually wants people in Limerick and Clare to pay even more to use a route that already has underlying problems. When the Limerick tunnel was first proposed, I pointed out that it had fundamental flaws, as experts said. The main flaw was that it was far too close to the city to be tolled in such a way as to have the desired effect on city traffic.

In Limerick city, one of the main traffic congestion points is Shannon Bridge on Dock Road. More than 15,000 cars use that route daily. The alternative is to use the Limerick tunnel. For years now, people have avoided this option as they do not want to pay the toll on their daily commute. This was predicted. The Limerick tunnel was built too close to the city centre and its charge is too high for it to reach its maximum potential and remove traffic from the streets of Limerick.

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