Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)

Hauliers face repeated toll hikes, with the M50 and Dublin Port Tunnel driving up costs. Some operators pay up to €20,000 per month in tolls, forcing many out of business. The Irish Road Haulage Association has warned this threatens Ireland's supply chain, which relies on road haulage for 98% of goods. The current toll system wastes €27 million in fuel and emits 45,000 tonnes of CO2 annually. The haulage industry is calling for toll exemptions and barrier-free tolling to cut costs and protect the economy.

I would like to know where all the money for all these tolls is going. Has it gone back into the roads? Certainly, we do not see them in west Cork, as well the Minister of State knows well. I will name a few of the roads in a minute. He travels on them the same as I do. Hauliers and the motorists are being hit the most all the time. This is another tax on their back.

Transport companies are facing serious issues with a new online portal for driver work permits. One company in west Cork could not even log in because its details had been uploaded incorrectly. They have described the system as completely flawed and not fit for purpose. It even asks drivers from other countries to upload their own information - drivers who often have no idea how to navigate this process. Surely it should be enough for the company to input the details. I strongly urge the Minister of State to streamline the system and make it practical for the industry.

Earlier on Leaders' Questions, I spoke about to people with licence issues. Last week, and again this morning, as I said, I raised the issue of returning Irish emigrants who face unnecessary and unfair barriers when trying to exchange foreign driving licences for Irish ones. I am calling for immediate change, the removal of the ten-year limit and the facilitation of direct exchange with those who previously held an Irish licence and now hold a valid foreign licence long term. I am being told that this can be done with the stroke of a pen. The Tánaiste has stated he will look into it. I am asking the Minister of State to look into it again, not kick the can over to the Road Safety Authority, RSA, or the National Driver Licence Service, NDLS, and have a look at the Dutch model. It is time we got on the side of people and the side of Ireland, rather than the side of red tape and bureaucracy.

When I had my contribution written up, I did not expect the Minister of State to be before me, but he knows as well as I do the condition of the roads in west Cork and the bypasses that have been promised in west Cork, with nothing happening in Innishannon, nothing happening on the southern or northern relief road and nothing happening on the Bantry road. The Minister of State might say it is happening on the Bantry Road. They are drawing up a report as if to say, "Kick the can down the road, throw a few hundred thousand euro into a report and they will all be happy." My brother, Councillor John Collins, attended the meeting and asked them when a bucket will put on the road. They do not know. It will probably be five or ten years, but it is a kick-the-can-down-the-road exercise to say they are doing something. Look at the Allihies mine shaft. There is a hole above in Allihies, a collapsed road, and nobody is doing anything about it. Look at the road in Lyre. Councillor Daniel Sexton brought it up in a motion last year. The road collapsed in the last seven or eight years and was never fixed. It is road after road. There are the Union Hall speed signs. At Owenahincha Cross turnoff, Councillor Sexton is again working so hard on new road alignments to Newmills. I could go on forever.

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