Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

It will worsen in eight months when the port tunnel opens and brings a huge number of articulated lorries and trucks on to the M50. This will benefit Dublin city centre by relieving its traffic congestion. It will become much worse during the next year, when the M50 will be completed and will link the Belfast road with the Wexford road and all roads in between. Clearly, the situation will worsen for motorists and local communities who live beside the motorway.

I spoke earlier to a former constituent who pays just short of €800 a year to cross the bridge twice a day, or ten times a week, for 11 months a year. The individual in question takes one month's holidays. He and his family must pay almost €800 in after-tax income for the privilege of using the M50. To put this in context, most people who live near the M50 have barely managed to obtain mortgages. What he is paying represents a substantial amount of after-tax income every year. The issue must be addressed, although I do not think that buying back the bridge is feasible. The idea that one can simply nationalise something that has been provided by private capital is not going to work.