Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for preparing this motion and for bringing it forward. The toll increase is just another example of the arms of the State imposing greater costs on people during the cost-of-living crisis. Much of what I would have said has already been said about the money these toll companies are making. The Minister is only too well aware of the many proposals that have been put to him, and to the Minister of State that was here before him in the Chamber, on whether we are getting value for money. As the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, he knows that the toll barrier at Dublin Port, although it is free for trucks, causes 100 tonnes of carbon emissions a day to be put into the atmosphere. It affects our lung health in the worst possible way. What is the cost of that? The Minister has already told me on the floor of the House here that it is a safety issue and that the barrier cannot be removed. The geniuses we have in TII are unable to come up with a solution, although no other country in Europe uses a toll at the entrance to a port tunnel. Some 40,000 l of fuel a day are being expended and wasted. That is a cost of €80,000 to the hauliers who operate the trucks and God knows what it costs us as a country to pay the fine to the EU for the excessive noxious emissions it causes. This is all counterintuitive and it is a bit disingenuous to turn around to TII with the Secretary General of the Department of Transport, who is receiving a very good wage, and who should have identified that this issue would arise. For years, we have all known that the cost of tolls is linked to inflation. At the worst possible time, in a cost-of-living crisis, we receive notification that the toll is going to rise.

Equally, we charge trucks in this country based on their size. They pay more than any other vehicle using the tolls. That is incorrect. The bigger the truck and the more axles it has, the less damage it does to the roads. That is the idea, whereby the weight is distributed across more axles causing less damage. These trucks should actually be paying less. They should be in the realm of coach transport, with a charge of €2.30 or €3, or whatever the charge is. Instead, the charge is nearly €7.

The €12 million which the Minister has saved, as he sees it, for the people and for the consumer still has to be paid, where someone has to pay tax to make it up and is €12 million which has been raised through the Exchequer. The reality is that we have to look at these contracts and see if we are getting value for money. The value for money for me would be not to have vehicles stopping unnecessarily, and expending fuel in order to raise revenue. Every toll in this country should be the same as the M50.

Every truck in Europe uses an express lane rather than expending fuel by taking off, having paid a toll. It is a ridiculous scenario. Will the Minister at the least, through the PPPs, put express lanes in, utilise them and give us value for money? If not, we are only robbing Peter to pay Paul and paying it back through climate measures we have not complied with. We sign up to emission targets. How can we make them when obstacles like this are put in our way? Expending 40,000 unnecessary litres of fuel getting into Dublin city every day of the year is outrageous. I hope, if nothing else comes out of this, this will come out of it.

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