Shane Ross (Independent)

——namely, that Mr. Flynn and Mr. Redmond signed the deal renders it controversial and that is why it should be re-examined. The price the Government paid is continued unpopularity and, more seriously, the recent loss of a by-election. It is no coincidence that Deputy Catherine Murphy, the Independent candidate, won the by-election in County Kildare. Deputy Catherine Murphy, according to her by-election literature, backed the campaign to open the toll bridge plaza. She attended the meetings and she has said it since her election.

Senator Kate Walsh also backed that campaign. I will welcome her vote with us on this motion because she specifically stated that she was 100% behind it. We will also welcome Senators Morrissey and Bohan, if they are consistent with what they have said on this issue. There is a great deal of support from the Government side for this but let us see what happens when it comes to a vote.

I have two questions for the Minister, in reply to which he may depart from his script. I have just come from a meeting of the Joint Committee on Transport at which the chief executive of the NRA said that it is in discussions with the Department and that a buy-out of the toll bridge plaza is not off the agenda. Will the Minister respond to that and say whether any dialogue is under way with NTR at present? Does he agree with the NRA that open tolling — his apparent solution to this problem — will take until 2008 and 2009 to introduce? In other words, is this misery going to continue for a minimum of another three or four years?