Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

I welcome No. 1 on the Order Paper, the motion which extends the time for contributions to the Order of Business to 40 minutes. I thank all colleagues on the Committee on Procedure and Privileges for agreeing to that motion. It is worthwhile and long overdue.

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business, that following the conclusion of the Order of Business statements on road tolling be taken for a period of one hour. This, in effect, would put off No. 2, statements on a strategy for men's health (resumed), to another day.

The Leader of the House will tell me in reply that there is no guarantee that the Minister, Deputy Cullen, would come to the House at such short notice. I do not want him in the House today, given the fiasco he has created for the commuters of Dublin over the past 48 hours and over the weekend. Just when we thought that the hard-pressed motorist would be liberated from the appalling toll plaza on the M50, we get another consultant's report and we cannot expect any action from the Government for at least two years. This is scandalous.

That road is clogged up on a daily basis. It does untold damage to families, motorists and business and it will get worse over the next 18 months as the port tunnel comes on stream. Senators on all sides need to debate this matter today because the Taoiseach has dumped on his Minister with responsibility in this area. It is clear from the spinning of the story last Saturday that there will be barrier-free tolling at various points on the M50, that people in my constituency who are currently not charged for using the road will subsidise the buy-out of NTR. We need to debate this matter today.

I will give another reason we need to debate it. I heard Senator Cox on the national broadcaster earlier this week make a compelling case for the need for a debate on tolling to the effect that within a matter of 12 months people coming from the west of Ireland will have to pay three tolls to get to Dublin city. There is much interest in this story. It is the issue of the day, one we should debate, and I ask the Leader to accede to my request.

In passing, I congratulate the people of Cork. I see that a former Member of this House, one of the great pillars of Irish democracy, former Senator John A. Murphy, has received the distinctive honour of becoming Cork person of the year. I congratulate him and the people of Cork.