Ann Ormonde (Fianna Fail)

I was a member of the former Dublin County Council and was present in 1987 when that agreement was made. I knew that negotiations over the agreement had been ongoing since the 1970s through the late John Boland and subsequently Liam Kavanagh. I remember canvassing in 1987 when one would not see a car outside the door because unemployment was so high. We never thought that the country's economy would improve as dramatically as it did. There is no point in saying otherwise. In 1990, it was calculated that there were slightly over 18,000 cars on the roads, while in 2003, there were over 78,000 cars on the roads. That figure indicates how much catching up had to be done.

I travelled recently from Naas to Ashbourne and encountered no problems until I reached the Red Cow roundabout. Thirty minutes elapsed before I could even get off the slip road to get on to the M50 at that point. The same thing would have happened at the other exchange at the Navan road. We should start by addressing these problems, which have nothing to do with tolling. I would ask the NRA what work it has done with local authorities to try to alleviate traffic congestion at that point. I support public private partnerships and I would ask NTR and the NRA to work together to see how they can move forward and fast track the situation. I agree that upgrading the toll is a priority. However, the interim measures must also be addressed. We are locked into this agreement and reading the Minister for State's speech, I do not see any way out of it. Both NTR and the NRA have a responsibility to heed the congestion on the toll bridge and negotiate and I would like to find whether they are doing so. The Minister has referred to having public responsibility with regard to electronic voting and how he can fast track that system.