Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

There is not a contradiction between improving how we use our streets, providing better public transport and abolishing the tolls. The Minister said he agrees with the vision but the vision argues that the tolls encourage vehicles crossing the city to go straight through the centre rather than taking routes around it. We know from Dublin City Council's draft Dublin city centre transport plan 2023 that six out of every ten cars are simply using the city centre roads as the most convenient routes to reach destinations outside the city centre and that these vehicles could use different routes to these destinations. We need to incentivise and encourage people to not bring their cars into the city centre. It would have a big impact. A daily commuter who drives across the city will have to pay €76 per month for the East Link Bridge or €92 per month on the M50. If we get rid of those charges, that will have an impact, to some degree, in reducing car traffic in the city centre and go towards achieving the 40% reduction targeted by Dublin city centre transport plan.

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