Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

Unfortunately, people already have cars. Perhaps the Minister will consider giving back to the local authority a percentage of the money from tolls, rather than allowing it to disappear into one big central agency. That would generate goodwill in local communities. We are all hounded by people who oppose motorways and tolling systems. However, they might accept them if they thought car tax would be abolished and some of the tolls would be used for local roads. That might work, particularly given that the National Roads Authority is not putting money into non-national roads. Tolling is important if we want to improve our infrastructure.

I disagree with Senator Mansergh about the great track record of Fianna Fáil, which has been the dominant party in Government for the past 80 years. Unfortunately, the country's infrastructure is not good, so we must equate one with the other. We have a lot of work to do in that area.