Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I move:

That Seanad Éireann:

—condemns the Government for its failure to provide any solution to the appalling problem of congestion on the M50, until 2008 at the earliest;

—expresses its concern in relation to the Government's proposal to move to barrier-free tolling on the M50 by way of the introduction of multipoint tolling at various sections through its length;

—notes the Government's failure to carry out a proper analysis of traffic management needs and future demand on the M50, prior to its announcement to expand tolling on this route;

—further notes that the opening of the port tunnel will add thousands of additional vehicles to the M50;

—condemns the current Government for its failure, since first taking office in 1997, to tackle congestion on the M50; and

—expresses its deep concern with the inequitable roll-out of tolling nationally, which will penalise motorists by forcing them to pay several tolls on each journey, as will be the case on the Galway to Dublin route.

I welcome the Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, to the House and the decision to debate this very important motion. There is no doubt that this issue is of national concern. The current situation on the M50 affects a vast number of motorists who commute to our capital city every day. However, it also places a massive strain on the development of our business community, which pays expensive tolls but whose members sit in traffic queues for hours.

Congestion on the M50 is worsening, a situation this Government has allowed to develop through its incompetent and negligent handling of the issue. This situation has been bubbling over since the mid-1990s but the Minister for Transport has stalled repeatedly. He has done nothing to prevent this mess from developing. Last week's meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts highlighted starkly the unforgivable mistakes made in respect of the M50 and the West Link toll bridge. This debacle goes back as far as 1987 when the Fianna Fáil-led Government of the day signed a bad deal with National Toll Roads, NTR, which is the operator of the West Link toll bridge.

This deal was politically naive and short-sighted. It effectively gave NTR a licence to print money, an opportunity it has exploited to the maximum degree possible. It now appears that the company will receive a further financial windfall of over €1 billion from hard-pressed taxpayers before this sorry fiasco draws to a close. No one disputes the fact that the 1987 deal with NTR was a bad one but we must move on from there.

However, this Government appears set to introduce an equally poor tolling arrangement. NTR has exploited Irish motorists by squeezing every penny out of them for almost 20 years and the Government is setting itself up to do the same thing in a more exaggerated and punishing manner. It is disgraceful that the Government should attempt to do so. The Minister announced last week that the Government was preparing to buy out NTR and its contracts to provide tolling facilities on the M50. This appeared to be good news and a sign that hard-pressed motorists would finally receive some relief.

However, like so many of this Government's initiatives, the devil is in the details, which are shocking. The Government now proposes to abolish tolls imposed by NTR and introduce a more expensive system of tolling. Under this proposal, we will move away from single-point tolling on the West Link toll bridge to multipoint tolling along the full length of the M50. No motorist using this route will escape the toll and it is likely that the cost of the toll will increase.

Motorists using the M50 thought matters could not get any worse but they have. Matters have worsened considerably. How can the Government stand over this crazy policy? Motorists already pay through the nose through taxation, vehicle registration tax and rising fuel costs. Where is the justice in all of this? The Government's proposal amounts to double taxation and offers nothing to hard-pressed motorists. They have no guarantee that congestion on the M50 will ease. NTR has stated that even when the M50 upgrade is completed, congestion will not ease.

A ludicrous situation now prevails whereby the Government is effectively attempting to tax motorists off the road. This may be a laudable aim in terms of reducing environmental pollution and dealing with our shortage of road space but the Government must be realistic. Motorists use their cars, particularly for travelling to work, because there is no alternative. The Government has failed to put in place the public transport alternatives that are needed to allow people to leave their cars at home. This new toll amounts to a tax on work and putting the horse before the cart because it is being introduced in the absence of any comprehensive public transport system in our capital city and throughout the regions.

If the Minister was serious about persuading people to leave their cars at home and stay off routes like the M50, he would have delivered on his transport commitments a long time ago. These commitments have been promised since this tired and jaded Government took office nine years ago. The Government's fatigue is obvious to all. Where are the 180 additional buses which were promised for Dublin Bus, which intended to expand its network across the city? The Minister is awaiting another study on this issue but he does not need one. Instead, we see bus lanes lying empty because there are no buses to use them. Where is the metro, which was promised in the programme for Government? It was meant to run from Dublin Airport to Dublin city from 2007 but is now a distant dream. The list goes on.

Instead, Transport 21 has been produced. This is a pipe dream containing policy proposals which were promised years ago but which this Government has consistently failed to deliver. My concern is that Transport 21 will end up gathering dust, like so many other strategies announced by the Government, and become a distant memory in the Government's mind.

We now witness an incredible situation whereby the Government will be forced to pay over €1 billion to NTR to compensate it for the move to electronic tolling. In addition, the M50 upgrade will cost another €1 billion. This is a considerable amount of money, which must be paid by taxpayers. The Taoiseach may throw his hands up in despair and say that a deal is a deal and that there is nothing the Government can do other than pay up and shut up in respect of compensation for NTR.

My colleague, Deputy Olivia Mitchell, has highlighted the fact that compensation for NTR is not totally clear-cut. A concise reading of the contract signed in 1987 and again in 2001 reveals that NTR has a duty of care in respect of its management of the West Link toll bridge which it is not living up to. There is no doubt that the barriers at the West Link toll bridge contribute to congestion on the M50 yet the company has been slow to move to electronic tolling, which could have alleviated delays. The breach of this clause of its contract could leave NTR liable to pay compensation to the State. Neither the Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, nor the National Roads Authority appear willing to pursue this avenue. It is disgraceful that they are willing to roll over and meekly pay a massive amount of compensation to the tune of €1 billion to National Toll Roads. This should be reconsidered.

Last week's announcement by the Minister regarding the tolling of the M50 was shambolic to say the least, as well as utterly confusing. The Minister announced that motorists on the M50 will have to move to barrier-free multipoint tolling along its length. However, he was unable to provide any finer detail on the matter. This was a result of the Minister jumping ahead and announcing something he had failed to work out himself, as is usually the case with him. When the Taoiseach moved to intervene and put out the fire of condemnation which met the announcement, he confirmed what we had all suspected, namely, that the Minister did not have any comprehensive proposals.

The Taoiseach appeared on one side to promise motorists that tolls would be gone by the year 2008, or even before that. There were no guarantees, however. With regard to the future of the M50 and the involvement of National Toll Roads, it has been confirmed that the matter will get much worse over the coming years. National Toll Roads has confirmed that it expects thousands of extra heavy goods vehicles to spill on to the M50 once the Dublin Port tunnel opens later this year. The year 2008 is no longer the crisis year for motorists stuck in traffic, as it will happen much sooner, when the port tunnel opens. The opening of the port tunnel, in addition to the M50 upgrade works over the next five years that will turn the motorway into a construction site, will mean the daily misery endured by motorists will get much worse.

The most disturbing of last week's revelations on the M50 issue is that the National Roads Authority has not been in touch with National Toll Roads to discuss how both are going to deal with the impact of increased traffic passing through the West Link bridge and along the M50. There has been no communication, no strategy and no plan. No wonder the public has lost all confidence in the Minister for Transport. He is offering no worthwhile solutions on the matter.

In the short term, even before the proposed State buy-out of the West Link bridge in 2008, we need to make changes on the M50 to ensure a greater flow of traffic. Fine Gael proposes that in light of the exceptional return NTR has made on this public infrastructure investment, the Government should request a number of concessions from the company to ease the burden of cost on the drivers using the bridge. These include the following: freezing the toll charges at the 2004 level; making NTR fund the introduction of electronic tolling technology and for it to be in place by 2008; and the opening up of the West Link bridge at exceptionally busy periods to allow a freer flow of traffic. The number and duration of these free-flow periods could be considered in consultation with the DTO, the AA and the local authorities involved.

The West Link bridge user is currently the only interested party not benefiting from the arrangements in place. National Toll Roads is reaping massive profits, the Government is taking in €23 million per year in fees, taxes and rates but the ordinary private or commercial driver is being hit by a double blow of increasing tolls and delays at peak times.

It is time for the Minister for Transport to reconsider the Government's general policy on tolling throughout Ireland. There are currently four toll roads and it is proposed to toll another five routes throughout the country. I strongly question the credibility of this strategy. By opting for private sector involvement in our roads building programme, are we setting up private operators to again collect buckets of cash from motorists?

The rationale for private sector involvement was perhaps once viable because we did not have the capital finances as a State to bankroll such costly projects. However, times have moved on and we now live in a wealthy State. Last year the budget surplus was €2.5 billion. Surely some of this could have been invested in a road building programme. I am concerned that by proceeding down the current route we are setting ourselves up for costly and rising tolls well into the future. We do not want a scenario mirroring the M50 to emerge.

The motion also raises the question of equity.