Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the announcement of a six-month delay, but we understand the money is still going to have to be paid. The sum of €12.5 million will have to come from somewhere else to be paid to these eight PPP companies in order for the State to meet its contractual obligations. What has emerged from this is a worrying proposition, in terms of how we as a State, as the owner of the road networks, is running them and raising revenue. People accept tolls as a fact of life, but with these projected toll increases the level of anger was quite astonishing, because people are so put to the pin of their collar. I spoke about this during my Topical Issue debate last Thursday week. There was a huge reaction to this announcement. There is a straw that broke the camel's back element to it. The vast majority of people who use tolls drive on motorways because they are travelling long distances and they cannot get public transport. It is the network that was designed for long-distance travel in a relatively quick and efficient way by car, truck or other vehicle. I gave the example of workers from Swords who have to go to Ballymount and the proposed increases would have been more than €100 a month travelling on the M50 every day.

The tolls are frozen, but they will go up. Peter Walsh from Transport Infrastructure Ireland is currently before the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications. His opening statement lays bare the situation. The vast majority of committee members probably were not aware of the situation regarding the contract and just how long the contracts with PPP companies are. Six of them are for 30 years, one is for 35 years, and the other is for 45 years. I will knit that with what Mr. Walsh says about the impact of freezing toll charges.

In the event that a freezing of toll charges is agreed, [which it now has been for six months] the contractual entitlement to the index linking of toll charges would still exist. If inflation continues to rise, this will result in rebalancing of, and consequentially, larger increases to, toll charges in January 2024.

That is incredibly worrying and concerning. The mistaken belief is that this cost-of-living crisis is seasonal and that we will reach March or April 2023, things will all be brighter, and the cost of living and inflation will go down. We all understand that is a fallacy. Where are we going with these toll contracts in this country? Are they just going to rise exponentially in line with the consumer price index, CPI? What is the long-term future for people who must travel, work and haul by the motorway system? Are we getting value for money from the contracts with these companies? I would argue we are not. The M50 has raised €1.2 billion in the past ten years, and it was €124 million in 2021, when we had restricted economic activity due to the Covid pandemic. Tolls are significant revenue raisers. We know money gets pumped back into the system. Some €200 million annually from the two public tolls goes back in and then there is revenue share from the PPP toll concessions. We do not know how much the revenue share is. I do not have those figures to hand, but it is something I will endeavour to find out. Is this the right model for Ireland in this decade, the next decade and future decades?

I was very disturbed to hear the comments on this from the Minister for Transport, Deputy Ryan. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, responded on the day in the media and she read out a script in reply to the Topical Issue matter. That day also, the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, referred to it on Leaders' Questions. The Minister of State and the Tánaiste were surprised by this, as if the increase had come as a bolt from the blue and that it was purely due to inflation, whereas the Minister, Deputy Ryan, said we need revenue to target congestion and to meet our climate targets. That is not why these increases were put forward. These are not a congestion charge or a climate charge. If we want to change the goalposts on this revenue and to ring-fence it for those measures, then the Minister must say so, but that is not the reason. It was disingenuous of the senior Minister to say that in this regard. He was the only person in political life who seemed to welcome the increase, as if it was great and that commuters would absorb it. They are unable to absorb much more. The Government has acknowledged that in terms of the freeze, but as Mr. Walsh's contribution to the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications a short time ago illustrates, we are storing up increases into 2024 and beyond. There will have to be a serious conversation, perhaps through the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications and within the Government, on whether we are getting value for money and if this is the right model or if we will face perpetual increases year on year and decade on decade?

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