Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank all Members who contributed to the debate. It was important and timely and we saw some response from the Government on this issue. That response is late, however, and it does not go far enough. The Government knew as far back as early September that these proposed hikes were to come in in January.

That is the time when a Minister for Transport who was in tune with the needs and lived experience of small business owners, of people driving vans trying to make ends meet, of commuters who get up early in the morning and get home late at night while working in the construction trades or wherever else, of haulage companies, for which he or she technically has responsibility and which would be faced with an €8 million bill if these proposed hikes came in, and of people who have to commute for dialysis, school, work or caring responsibilities in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, when notified of these proposed increases, would have said "No way", that they could not proceed and that we had to find another way. That did not happen. The Minister has never, at any stage, said that. We have heard it from other Government party representatives and from other Government party leaders but we have never heard it from Deputy Ryan, the Minister with responsibility for the area. I welcome the fact that he is in the Chamber but we did not hear that from him even tonight.

In his deliberations, we heard that, whatever about the tolls, we knew where the money was not coming from. It was not coming from public transport or active travel and that, after that, it was somebody else's problem. It is the same tonight. In his contribution, the Minister pointed to measures the Government has taken. We support and have supported these measures and have prepared policy documents asking him to take different approaches and to go further with regard to public transport and active travel. We support such measures and our representatives will help deliver them in local communities. However, the Minister cannot ignore the fact that he has responsibility for the whole gamut of transport and that very many people have no alternative. They do not have the opportunity to switch to an electric vehicle, public transport or active travel. The Minister cannot ignore the plight of those people.

The fact that we have left it from 1 September until 29 November to act on this tells me that this is a Government and a Ministry that is not in tune with people's needs. As we speak, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII representatives are before the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications, scratching their heads and wondering whether they can get this done for 1 January because these are complex matters involving private contracts and a number of different parties. There is no guarantee and the mechanism will have to be negotiated. Without a shadow of a doubt, had TII been asked to do this on 1 September, it would have had a better chance of delivering it on 1 January. I encourage the Minister to take this motion and the debate tonight with him and to impress on the Department of Transport, on TII and on those profitable public private partnership, PPP, companies that they must ensure this measure is in place for 1 January.

However, as we have said, the Minister needs to go further than that. The period of six months is not long enough. During that time, I encourage the Minister to look at the funding mechanism for our national roads network. We have heard from TII that we invest approximately 2% of the value of our roads in their maintenance while 33% of this maintenance is dependent on tolls from the M50. That is the scheme we have built. It is based on PPP contracts and privatisation and represents a failure of Government to deliver on its responsibilities through general taxation. It is a failed model that is crucifying ordinary people and it needs to be addressed.

We also need a tolling scheme that incentivises the most efficient use of our roads. We have heavy goods vehicles and people in private cars avoiding the tolls by taking more minor roads, causing congestion. This is not an efficient use of our network and increases emissions, costs and congestion. It needs to be addressed and the Minister is responsible for doing that. I do not have confidence that he will but surely he has heard loud and clear from the commuting public that it needs to be done.

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