Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I understand that, but while there are contracts there the Minister of State must accept these were bad contracts. They did not work well for the public or the taxpayer. These contracts were win-win all the way for the toll companies and that continues to be the case. The Minister of State mentioned there will be a profit share if the volumes of traffic increase. There was also a situation where if the volumes of traffic were below estimations the taxpayer would compensate the toll companies, so there was no losing for the companies that built these toll roads and it has been all losing for motorists. A person gave me an example of a woman with three children who goes to work using a toll road. As one of the children has autism she travels a lot on the M50 to bring the child up and down to services they use. Her husband also works using the M50. The bill for that family has increased hugely because of the toll increases, so it has an impact.

The Minister of State mentioned the increases were deferred for six months. The Government had an opportunity there to go back to these companies to renegotiate aspects of these contracts to try to push down the charges unfortunate members of the public are subject to.

See this speech in context