Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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The proposed increase in tolls is just the latest part of a highway robbery that is being carried out by the private operators in this country. This highway robbery is facilitated by the Government and by Fianna Fáil, historically, which developed this whole notion of public private partnerships, PPP. The robbery continues apace.

The Government indicated it is going to pay to put off the toll increases. The people who use these roads will obviously welcome that. They are not going to be hit by these toll increases for six months. The Government is still handing over €12.5 million to these private companies, however. The public is still being robbed and will still pay for it but just in another form. The scandal, therefore, continues.

It is worth retracing our steps to see how we got here and how we have this system of public private partnership where the public takes all the risk and the private sector takes all the profit. We need absolutely to bring an end to it. We need to take these out of private ownership and bring them into public control.

There was a story in The Irish Timesat the weekend with a headline that read, "Who runs Ireland’s road tolls and who gets the money? International investment funds provide the money, and take the risk, for our motorway network." That is the ideology and the propaganda. It tries to suggest the private interests that run most of the toll roads ran a risk and, therefore, in some way have a legitimate expectation of getting a profit. That was the ideological basis of PPPs in this State, not just in roads but in schools and other important projects like social housing.

The truth is that, when we examine it, the private actors in the motorways ran no risks. When the Roche family and their friends in Fianna Fáil did the deal on the M50 toll road in the 1980s, there was no risk. The State built the motorway. The only remaining link that National Toll Roads, NTR, built did not leave any option for motorists to flyover or bypass the link. It was a cash cow delivered to a wealthy dynasty that set them up for generations to come. We were sold a con then. We were told that, by using private enterprise, the State would avoid funding all the costs of key infrastructure, the public would save money, in return, the private companies ran a risk that they could lose the money, and - this was the idea - we got these roads, schools and houses at a supposedly bargain price. Of course, it was a nonsense. These people were not doing it for the good of their health. They were doing it because they were very out to make a very substantial profit. That was nonsense then and it is nonsense now, and it is being used to contract out core State responsibilities and fatten the profit margins of already wealthy investors and company owners.

The twists and turns in share ownership and buyouts since the start of PPPs are part of the same process of financialisation in which key public goods have been plundered by various vested interests, again with the public picking up the tab. The justification for these increases to the effect that the contract allows for it and deferring it will mean larger increases later follows a pattern that has been repeated again and again without looking at the question of how we got here. We got here because of the hold of new liberal ideas on the Government and core actors in the State. It was presented that private sector involvement in any project was unquestionably seen as a good thing whereas the public sector was seen as inherently inefficient, unionised, backward and so on. We have the result of all this policy and we can draw a balance sheet on it. The truth is that the policy has been a disaster. It means that, when we face a cost-of-living crisis, as we do, we are told we cannot prevent hikes in tolls because of the PPPs or, in this case, we can prevent them temporarily but we have to pay for it. At key moments, PPPs and the privatisation beyond them remove the ability of the State, or certainly weaken its ability, to control costs and provide key services.

We might look at the facts of it, which suggest the private sector did not ever risk its wealth in this process. An Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, report in 2018 found that:

A striking feature of our analysis is the revelation that road PPP projects are mainly financed by the public sector. Our analysis has established that the public sector has contributed €1.01 billion in construction payments, in addition to €1.17 billion spent on land acquisition costs. Although private finance contributed over €1.8 billion of investment in the projects analysed, of this over €590 million was borrowed from the EIB which is a major lender of public funds to the private PPP companies.

The report also found that while PPPs accounted for one third of Ireland's motorway networks, the use of PPPs at that time had not been subject to any review or analysis by the State. Therefore, far from saving the State money, even in the initial building stage, PPPs in roads cost us and people continue to pay dearly via charges as well as directly subsidising the private sector. Those who gain are the operators who have been returning profits despite the slowdown during Covid 19. The M1 at Gormanstown made €8 million last year for Celtic Roads. The Portlaoise bypass made €4 million for it. The Waterford bypass made it €3 million. Eurolink made €5 million from the M4, almost €6 million from the M3 and so on. That was just in the last year.

Toll roads and PPPs are the gift that continues to give for many of Ireland's wealthiest and some of the globe's largest investment funds. We know the Roche family via National Toll Roads made a vast amount on the M50 deal. We also know, as reported in the Business Postsome years ago, that the State paid a staggering €600 million to NTR to buy out the West-Link toll bridge operation. It is estimated that NTR earned over €1.15 billion from the motorway project, which was built at a cost of around €60 million. An array of international funds, private corporations and Irish rich have made a killing from PPPs. These deals, which were presented as a good deal for the public and so on, were in reality always designed to transfer wealth from the public to very rich private operators, and they continue to fulfil that role.

The hikes which motorists face during the cost of living crisis are just the latest episode in a long-running saga of how the main political parties in this State, especially Fianna Fáil, have forced ordinary people to pay for those profits in various different ways. That continues.

One can see the situation where the companies are forced to delay their increases but they get it from the public in another way because the State simply pays them not to do it. It is a scandal. The way to bring an end to it is to take these toll roads, which have already made a very significant amount of money for their private owners,out of private ownership, to bring them into public ownership and to run them in the interests of the public.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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I welcome Sinn Féin's motion and thank them for taking the lead from Aontú, which raised this issue last May and again on 17 November. The State right now is involved in highway robbery across this country. It is an incredible situation that it is shaking down commuters who are living in commuter hell at the moment right around the State.

Families are hammered with the cost of living and are finding it difficult to pay for cars, to get them fixed and to pay for fuel. Moreover, nearly 50% of the cost of the fuel that they are paying for is actually going to the Government. The Government is collecting more in fuel taxes today than it did before the cost-of-living crisis raised its ugly head. It is an incredible situation that this is taking place and it is no small money for families. Families in my constituency of Meath are often forced to go through three tolls on the way to work and three on the way back. People are paying well over €2,000 to use the tolls in this State. The worst thing about that is that they are spending this money on an annual basis and are still spending three hours a day in traffic and traffic jams, and are being made to pay for the pleasure of that traffic jam through the toll that this Government is using.

The truth of the matter, let us be honest, is that the tolls are a cash cow now in this State. The M50 cost £58 million to build. The PPP company that signed the contract with Pádraig Flynn, who a tribunal found received £8,000 back from the PPP company, made more money in one year than was the cost of building those two bridges. In one year, the company had paid off that entire debt at the time. The State then paid €1.3 billion for those bridges, which were built for £58 million. What is happening is absolutely sickening and the Government is literally milking people on the way to work. It is a tax on work and on commuters and people have no other option in respect of public transport in these areas.

We have been campaigning for a rail line to be built from Navan to Dublin for the past 15 years and one of the reasons it has not been built is because it would take people from the motorway, would reduce the tolls going to the toll company, and the State would have to make up the difference. It is heads we win and tails you lose and this is the deal the Government has created with these toll companies. Right now the Government should end the cost of the M50 toll and help people who are struggling.

Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent)
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While the Government is spending billions to ease acute cost-of-living pressures, it is then taking it back in the form of tolls. The highest rise in tolls of 60 cent per journey was confirmed last week by the State agency Transport Infrastructure Ireland, with the blessing of the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan. While the decision to defer these increases for six months announced today was welcome, this leads to kicking the issue down the road. Let us take note that the decision by Transport Infrastructure Ireland flies in the face of Government policies. As these private companies are already making millions of euro in profits, how can Transport Infrastructure Ireland justify the increase in toll charges to the maximum permitted value? I am aware that the surge in inflation has resulted in the higher cost of materials for road repairs and the general rising cost of operations. My question, however, would be to ask whether toll prices need to increase to their maximum permitted value. Just last month, for example, the M3 toll operators reported €11 million in profit for the previous financial year. While this will be the first rise in M50 tolls for a decade, an additional point I will make is that we have paid for this infrastructure ten times over. Research shows that commuters have already paid €1.2 billion for the M50 tolls in the past nine years. Taxpayers have already paid millions of euro in traffic-guarantee payments to private toll companies over the past three years due to the low levels of traffic on the motorways as a result of the pandemic. These toll increases are only further taxation. It does not matter what label one puts on it because it is a further taxation in a highly-taxed environment.

The M50 brought in €140 million in revenue last year, which was a year of curtailed movement and economic activity and it has brought in €1.2 billion over the past ten years. This is not just on the M50 but it is happening all over the country. These are some of the most attractive companies for public private partnership contracts and they are cash cows. These are huge revenue-raisers for the State for reinvestment in our road network but what has happened now is in an undefined and unexplained grab for the maximum allowance of revenue for these companies under the guise of keeping up with inflation.

Rural areas within my constituency of Louth and east Meath will be the hardest hit by all these toll increases. Whether that is now or in six months' time, the situation will not change. These are the people who are dependent on private car use due to the lack of transport infrastructure.

A key goal of policy is to get people out of their cars, which will inevitably involve higher charges for motorists across a range of areas. I understand that there is a modal shift to change to public transport and perhaps this is the main reason for the Minister’s support for this increase. However, I am disappointed that the 8.6% rise in the toll from 21 August 2021 to August 2022 is being continued by Transport Infrastructure Ireland against this maximum increase. Big hikes in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis are not a good idea. Does the Minister know that inflation will have settled by June and the cost of living crisis will have abated? If inflation rates are low, will that mean that the increase will not be required? What is the general idea about kicking the can down the road? It is the regular users which will be exposed, including commercial fleets and daily commuters and the timing could hardly be worse. All the Minister is doing is robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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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.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Táimid ag bogadh ar aghaidh go dtí the Rural Independent Group. The Independent Group is sharing with them.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an nGrúpa Neamhspleách. I thank the Independent Group for giving us the extra time.

This is another fine mess the Minister has got us into. As Minister for Transport when this broke, he showed no cop on, copped out and went to COP27. I heard the Tánaiste saying it was wrong and might not happen. I heard the Taoiseach say something similar but they had to wait until the man himself came back from Egypt. I heard him when he came back saying we could not look at it again, that it was an agreed deal unless the money we get from this came from someplace else and that he was putting the money directly into projects. No doubt they are some of the Minister's pet Green Party projects. I want to know cad a tharla. Cad a tharla? "Cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan adhmad? ... Níl trácht ar Chill Chais". What has happened? How did the change come about?

I have no hang-up about public private partnerships. I welcomed them when they started but it is the ineptitude of our system whereby senior management in Departments cannot seem to get any fair contract for the taxpayers. Look at the children’s hospital, broadband and scandal after scandal. No doubt there is another project which I am aghast the Minister is still thinking of going ahead with, namely, piping water from Tiobraid Árann to Baile Átha Cliath. Before someone says I have something against Dublin, I do not but it is mad and daft, considering the size of the pipe, the damage to the ecology, flora and fauna and the whole excavation, to pump it to Dublin with 48% leakage. The Government could not fix it though it had the ideal opportunity to do so during Covid, when there was not a vehicle on the road.

Getting back to taxpayers, I travelled to Cavan last night from Tipperary. My colleague travelled from west Cork and has been through six tolls. A person was on to my office today who lives in my constituency and works in Cork. Between tolls and fuels, it now costs €8,000 for that person to travel to Cork to work from Tipperary, which is 60 or 70 miles at most. That is savage. She gets no tax allowance for that. No one takes account of that as regards her wages and the taxes she pays. It is criminal.

I heard Deputy Verona Murphy talk about the toll bridge. What about all the fumes and pollution with all this stop-start? We know how hard trucks are on fuel. Of course, the more axles on a truck, the less damage on the roads. The Government does not seem to get that and is fleecing the lorry drivers. It is massive. Think of that both ways. It is incredible. Why did the Minister allow this to happen? He had representatives of this company contacting his Department. That is what I understood. He had somebody looking into it and knew this would happen before he flew off to Egypt. He was forewarned. He can tell me I am wrong if he wants. If he did not know, he should have. He must have some oversight over these bodies or does he just allow them to charge what they like and gouge who they like?

More important is the issue concerning the TII. I thought the National Roads Authority, NRA, was stood down and TII set up. I found out lately from a person who gave me a lift and who works in one of those agencies that both exist. They are still there. Why is it that we need all these big boards?

I was delighted when we decommissioned the NRA. I said for years we decommissioned the IRA and could not stand down the NRA. Its representatives are impossible and arrogance oozes out of them. I meet TII representatives if I can meet them. You would meet the Pope a lot more easily. I have met the Pope three times. The disdain you get from them. They put up signs outside Showerings, or Bulmers, in Clonmel and increased it just inside of a junction from 50 km/h to 100 km/h when people are coming out of Redmondstown junction in fear of their life trying to turn right. We met the TII, NRA or whoever the hell they were, and they would not listen to us. It was the same in Carrick-on-Suir. They put a 100 mph speed limit on the N24 right into the Tinvane estate and the two estates coming out there. It is unsafe for people coming out. Would they listen to us? We were treated with arrogance. Councillor Kieran Bourke and I, along with Deputy Cahill I think, were at the meeting and it was still the same. People are in fear for their lives but you cannot talk to these unelected quangos that show contempt for public representatives. We have to meet the people and try to work with officials to make things safer.

An Teachta O'Donoghue will talk about the N7 between Portlaoise and Limerick, as he travels it every day. It is a warpath. When it rains, the drainage is obviously wrong, the camber is wrong and there is something wrong with the surface. I am not an expert but I know a bit about roadmaking. That is what people tell me who are experts. Members of the Garda are called out to accidents and are afraid for their lives. People have lost their lives and been maimed on it. There is accident after accident because of wrong drainage, wrong bitumen in the finished project and a wrong camber. It is a recipe for disaster and is unfair to motorists. There is a sign up now catching them for the average speed they do between two cameras. I have no problem with that but have a problem that the Government cannot put up flashing lights when it rains to warn of water ponding on the roads. It is a new motorway. Members of the Garda will say privately there is something wrong with it because they are out there every day. Council officials will say it, but not publicly. The Government will not give in, but people are unsuspecting.

It is the same away on the M8 between Cahir and Mitchelstown. On mountainy terrain in the Galtee Mountains, inferior pipes were put in. I said it at the time. There are 8-inch pipes taking water from streams that a 10-foot pipe would not take. The road is getting flooded and unsuspecting motorists are being wiped out, upside down, jackknifed trucks, you name it. It is scandalous that we have roads like that. Since the drains were put in and the roads opened ten years ago at least, nobody looked at the inlets or the drains. They are all blocked and streams are blocked and water is flowing down onto the motorway for the last six weeks. Government says it is fine, it is delivered and the PPP is finished and signed off on. The people who built it are gone. They did a good job but we need maintenance on these motorways. We need to make sure water is not getting onto them. Ecology and waterfalls change. Nobody is looking at the drainage or up in Coillte at the different happenings up there. There are huge issues that need to be rectified.

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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The question is whether motorists will be hit with the highest permitted toll charge hikes, up to 60 cent per journey, across the country in six months' time, following the decision to raise tolls in line with inflation. This is another attack on the car and other road vehicles, which will add fuel to the cost-of-living pressures on motorists, hauliers and other transport operators. The Minister has been blasé about this, accepting it and leaving it happen behind the scenes. Is this another attack on the motorist?

Increasing toll prices will greatly increase pressures on commuters and businesses during the cost-of-living crisis. Why would the Government-owned M50 up its tolls by just over 9% while the Government also allows PPP motorways to bring in maximum tolls under agreements with the State? Will the new prices come into effect in six months?

In a recent statement, the State roads operator, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, confirmed the State and the PPP companies have discretion in setting the tolls while they are restricted from increasing the tolls beyond inflation. They do not have to match rising consumer prices. Vans, trucks and buses will also see toll increases if this happens. Tagged goods vehicles less than 2,000 kg and buses will be charged €3.80, up from €3, on video and an increase of 30 cent to €4.40 if unregistered, that is, up from €4.10. Where is all this money going? In the name of God, what are we doing? This is a cash cow. As has been said several times today, it is highway robbery of the ordinary mother and father, who are trying hard to survive. The Government is quite happy to allow that to happen because motorists are paying tax, carbon tax and 50% of the price of fuel to the State.

8 o’clock

As Deputy Mattie McGrath said, yesterday I went to Cavan for the launch of Shane P. O'Reilly's campaign running for the Rural Independent Group in the next election and came back last night. I passed six tolls on the way up. While people might say I can afford it, it is a scandalous waste to be throwing money into an old basket for people who do not have the tag. It is a fair con job, I must say. When I go into Northern Ireland I can drive around freely. It has no toll bridges. How can they survive without hitting their people in the pocket as much as we do?

While it is difficult, it would be fine if the money was distributed to pay for roads throughout the country, but the roads in west Cork are scandalous. I raised that issue with the Taoiseach today. I raised the issue of the Innishannon bypass where not a sod is turned nor a brick or a piece of tar laid there. The same is true of the southern relief road in Bandon, the northern relief road in Bandon and the Bantry relief road. I mentioned all those earlier on Leaders' Questions because we need to survive. We need to promote west Cork. Over recent years I have fought very hard. Sadly, the Cork Taoiseach is coming to the end of his term and he has never allowed any progress on any of those projects.

An independent report recently showed that Cork County Council is 52 years behind other counties on roads infrastructure and funding for different projects. When I raised that today, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan started giving out suggesting that I should not be representing these views for the people of west Cork. He will not gag me and nobody will gag me, thank God. Only the people of Cork South-West will have their say over me and anything I might say about roads or other genuine issues in west Cork.

Why can we not have a couple of simple passing bays? That is all we are asking for - not high flyovers or anything. Around Bandon, Clonakilty and Skibbereen someone might spend half an hour or up to 40 minutes behind a lorry or tractor, which is scandalous. We need to have a clear understanding that passing bays can be put into these areas. I need to work with them, but Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan says I am talking negatively. I am actually talking positively because we need change here. While he might accept second best for west Cork, I will not accept second best for west Cork and I will never do that while I stand here in the Dáil.

I have discussed public transport with the Minister on numerous occasions. I look at the money that is being wasted. I know there has been much good footpath infrastructure done and footpaths need to be done. The other day I was going into Castletownbere, as I do fairly often. I know the Minister loves west Cork. If he takes a trip down there some day, he can give me a shout and I will take him up there. Honest to God, I might nearly consider landing a plane on some of the footpaths. It is outrageous. People tell me if there is a lorry with a Hymac and it meets another, they have to drive up on the footpath. What in the name of God is going on? It is lovely to see a new footpath. I absolutely welcome that, but not the unbelievably sized footpaths that are bigger than the roads themselves when they are looked at from both sides. It is absolutely insane.

Tolls are a vicious charge as it is. While we are discussing roads, driving and the tolls, I plead with the Minister to look at the driving instructor situation in Skibbereen. There were two permanent driving testers and one has already moved on with the second one due to move on soon. People who applied for a test two or three weeks ago were told they would get a test in three months which is a bit unfair, but we would live with that. Now some people who applied last Friday have been told they must wait six months. There is a serious situation there. A Senator from west Cork said last week that I was scaremongering. I am inundated with calls from people ringing me and my office asking why they cannot get a driving test within two or three months, which is somewhat acceptable, but not for five or six months which is not acceptable. I plead with the Minister to find out what the situation is. Will Skibbereen have full-time driving testers available on 1 January 2023? I will not accept second best. Maybe Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan and the Senator from west Cork might, but I would never do that for the people of west Cork.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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The Government does not want transition; it just wants tax. Every time someone turns, it is tax. In the Minister's last address to us here on COP, he mentioned the trillions of euro made by fossil fuel companies. However, he forgot to say that it was great because we are charging people 50% tax on that fossil fuel in this country without transition.

The Minister wears glasses and I wear glasses for driving. When I come to Dublin, I stay outside Dublin. I come in here every morning and the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and I queue in the traffic coming into Dublin because the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, does not have the transport to get people around Dublin. There are 2.2 million vehicles in the country and he cannot even get it right in Dublin. He cannot provide adequate transport for young families who take their children to school or crèche. If they get sick, the parents need to go back and collect them. The Minister cannot provide it in Dublin, but he reckons he will do it all around the country and penalise every person who has no other opportunity but to drive.

He then looked to increasing the tolls. Along with my fellow Members from the Rural Independent Group I was in Cavan last night to launch Shane P. O'Reilly's campaign for the next general election. I also travelled from Limerick through four tolls to get to Cavan. Who is taking the money?

In rural areas throughout the country out of respect, we go to the funerals of the families and friends of the people we represent. What does the Government do? It taxes us to go to pay our respects at funerals. Limerick has been in four all-Ireland finals in the last five years. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, cannot even give us real transport to get us here and therefore we must drive. That is why they call it the sea of green coming up to Dublin.

The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is a failed Minister. He fails to understand the people of Ireland and fails to understand transition. Not one person in this country does not believe in global warming. Not one person in this country does not realise that we must do something. However, everyone in the country believes in transition, but the Minister and his Government do not. If the infrastructure is put in, it will transition itself into public transport and will reduce the amount of emissions.

Other Deputies have spoken tonight about the toll at the port. How many tonnes of emissions is it causing at the ports? The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, came to Limerick and went to Foynes. He ran around all the places. He said it was lovely in Limerick and that we need to get things going. Since I was elected to this House, I have been asking him to get Foynes Port, the deepest port in Europe, up and running but it has not happened. Whose pocket is he in up here? They say that he is allowing all the transport come to Dublin at seven miles to the gallon coming up and down the motorway. He is supposed to represent the whole country in transition and he is a failed Minister. He cannot do it.

He said he went to COP - to tell the truth what he has done is cop a bull. He has done nothing but brought hardship for every person in this country, including the people of Dublin by failing to give them transport. He has also failed to provide transport to his own Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media who spends two hours in a queue of traffic with me every day. It is 11 miles from here to the Red Cow interchange. It takes me an hour and 40 minutes in high traffic because of the Minister's failure to free up the traffic in Dublin, which is overpopulated. It is a failure by him and his Government.

The Minister then decided to close half the streets even around Leinster House. Now we cannot even get around the streets. It takes me 40 minutes to get around to the other side so I can actually head towards the Red Cow interchange. Again, it is a failure of Government. I asked the Minister to look at the traffic light system here. When one light goes red, the next four lights are green on a straight road. I asked him to look at the timing of them. Again, it would save emissions because they will get traffic moving. He failed to do that and he stands up here then and claims they are doing this, that and the other for the country.

The Minister spoke about taking Ministers out to COP27. He took one Minister of State who looks after forestry and dairy in this country.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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One official.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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Yes. That is what he thinks of this country. He talks about forestry. His other failure is that in 2012 we knew there was a problem with ash dieback. The Government was told but it did nothing about it. What did it do? It let all the forests with ash dieback fail. It said it would give people €1,000 to clear the land. That is what it did. It was another failure of the Minister. When we add all of the Minister's failures to his resumé when he finishes, I hope everyone in this country understands that the Green Party Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, does not understand transition. The only transition he understands is in the bubble in space where he thinks he is Captain Spock and he is going from here to there expediently. That is his transition. Transition for Ireland is everyone moving together, not penalising everyone through the Minister's failure to introduce equality for everyone. That is his failure.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I was glad the Government and my Department were able to reduce public transport fares for everyone in this country by 20% and for 50% for young people.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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Where people had public transport.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I was glad this Government was able to help out the licensed hauliers with our emergency support scheme when we gave each haulier a payment of €100 per week for eight weeks.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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Only those with a haulage licence.

Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Deputy, please.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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That was important at the time when prices were high.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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It was only for those who had a haulage licence. He is telling lies.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I was proud to be part of a Government that has been recognised by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and many others as having introduced budgets that protected the vulnerable while retaining economic security for all. That is not common among European governments but this Government did it. I am glad and proud to be part of a Government that changed the rules around excise duties, petrol and diesel-----

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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Tax.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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-----and the National Oil Reserves Agency, NORA, levy.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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Tax.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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We maintained the revenue diesel rebate scheme to recognise that we were in difficult times. We will defer the increase even though it was proposed to provide for the cost of inflation, particularly in road maintenance and operations, which are important. We must maintain that service for the Irish public and we will do that. That money will not come from cuts to the road maintenance budget because it is important we keep maintaining the roads rather than coming back later. It is cheaper that way. Nor will it be taken out from the public transport budget, which particularly for rural Ireland is increasing significantly. I will give the Local Link rural transport services as an example of where there has been a major expansion. The budget for Local Link has increased from €12 million in 2016 to over €28 million this year and we are not stopping there.

I am proud that we are starting to roll out Connecting Ireland bus services from County Limerick into Limerick city, from Galway to all over the country, and in west Cork. They provide regular return services that were not provided in the past because we recognise we have to make this change.

It is not an easy time in the country or in the world. It is difficult and challenging but all of those measures have been done. They are provided for in the budget and elsewhere to try to protect people through this difficult time. We also need to maintain services and income streams to pay for services. The cost of bitumen has gone very high, making it very expensive to put a dress or topping on a new road. That more than anything else is expensive. We need revenue streams to pay for that. It is how the world goes around and keeps working. This Government is doing that and is serving our people to the very best of our ability.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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The Minister spoke for only two minutes and 40 seconds. Is that as much as he could give to rural Ireland?

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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While the six-month delay will be welcomed by many people, it is a case of kicking the can down the road. In fact, so many cans have been kicked down the road by this Government, it will make a fortune in the new cash for cans recycling measures when they are introduced in 2024. When the hikes come in they will hit people's pockets. They will hit the pockets of workers, businesses and families at a time when their finances are already under unprecedented pressure due to the cost-of-living crisis.

While I am glad the Minister has put a break on them for the time being, these unfair price hikes can and must be stopped for good. This is not a measure that will help the toll road companies pay the bills and meet increases in costs. These are very profitable companies. We have heard time and again how profitable they are. With the permission of the State, they are profiteering and price gouging.

There will be other consequences for the people where I live in Dublin West, in Strawberry Beds, Lucan, Castleknock and Clonsilla, because it will mean heavier traffic as people try to save money by avoiding the tolls when the increases come in. The empty M3 will remain a virtual ghost road as people use the old N3 to avoid the price gouging. It will also impact on hauliers, increase transport costs and push up the price of food and other goods. When we talk about the cost of living, this is the cost of living.

One issue that deeply frustrates people who have to use these toll roads on a daily basis is that they pay road tax. Every year, the bill comes in and they pay and then they pay again and again every single day. The cost-of-living crisis is affecting so many workers, families and individuals. I appeal to the Minister not just to give them a temporary break but to stop the road toll hikes into the future. What we have seen over the years is that the road deals, the public private partnerships or PPPs, given to these private companies make hundreds of millions, if not billions of euro over the term. I heard there is a 40-year term in one of them. That is outrageous.

Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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I thank Deputy O'Rourke for tabling the motion before the House. This Government needs to start standing up for the people who are in need of help. People are sick and tired of seeing a Government watch while others take advantage of the people. The Government only responds in the interests of the public when pressure from the Opposition or elsewhere becomes too much to bear. We have seen this with its slowness to act in the areas of windfall taxes and decoupling gas from electricity prices while energy providers have used the war in Ukraine to boost their massive profits. We have seen similar foot-dragging from the Government when it came to implementing an eviction ban as people deal with the cost-of-living and the housing crises throughout the winter.

The Department of Transport was made aware of this planned toll hike in early September. It did absolutely nothing until it was faced with public opinion and a motion that called it out on its inaction. The Minister then announced a freeze on the increases until next year. That is welcome for now, but what plans does he have in place for next July? Will he let the toll companies have free reign again and hike its charges even further? It is another Government-sponsored sticking plaster. What it needs to do between now and then is assess the funding for our roads network and review the value for money of PPP contracts. In our alternative budget we proposed savings for next year by reducing the threshold for cars that qualify for EV grants from €60,000 to €50,000. Whether the Minister likes it or not, if someone is ready to spend that much on a car, they do not need financial support, no more than they need a tax break for a private jet. This would have created space to deal with the cost of these toll hikes and would have spared the Minister his last-minute scrambling to see how the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform can find the money to fund the U-turn.

Is the temporary freezing of tolls meant to lessen the impact of the Minister for Finance's decision to reintroduce bonuses for senior bankers. I will tell the Minister one thing. I look forward to the day when we can shake off the damage done to us by decisions made by successive Fianna Fáil-led Administrations which, among other things, gift gold-plated contracts that permit these toll increases. With Fine Gael and the Green Party, Fianna Fáil now wants to reward senior bankers with outrageous bonuses while families are forced to tighten their belts even further.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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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.