Derek McDowell (Labour)

I wish to share my time with Senator Tuffy. A statement of principle is probably a good place to start. I do not have a problem, in principle, with tolls. Sometimes the impression is given that all Government politicians are in favour of tolls, so long as they are not in their own areas, and all Opposition politicians are against them. I do not have problem in principle with tolls but they must be reasonable. They cannot be put on one motorway and not on another and they should only apply to new roads. There will not be general public acceptance of the need to pay for roads if they are not new. However, if the road is new and the toll is proportionate and reasonably priced then I do not have a difficulty with the users of a stretch of motorway bearing some of the cost, provided the public-private partnership arrangements are appropriate.

We have had various types of public-private partnership arrangements over the years and I hope to goodness we have got them right by now. I have certainly been hearing more positive news on that issue in recent times than was the case a few years ago, but we have made some mistakes in this area, as have other countries, it must be said. Either way, I do not have a difficulty, in principle, with tolls.

The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General to the Committee of Public Accounts last week stated that the memo to Government in 1984, before the first bridge was built, pointed out that tolling ring-roads was not customary in Europe. There was a good reason for that. We have heard the argument already so I will not rehash it, but if people are being tolled for a relatively short journey to work twice daily, it is different from tolling journeys between Dublin and other cities and we should not be doing it.

We must now find the most reasonable solution and I agree that we must move to barrier-free tolling. However, I do not understand why it must take until 2008 and why we must wait another year before we get the legislation to achieve that. I accept the principle that it must be done by electronic recognition of registration plates or an Eazy Pass system and that the notion of nationalising the 3 km of the M50 that we do not own is unrealistic because we should not visit that cost on the taxpayer. However, I am at a loss to understand why, given the reasonable degree of consensus, it has taken us so long to arrive at where we are now, a general acceptance in principle that we must do away with the barriers. That is all we have agreed so far, there is nothing beyond that. Surely we could have achieved more by now.

The HGV management plan published by Dublin City Council before Christmas acknowledged, as we all knew, that there is little point in putting in place a toll strategy on the Dublin Port tunnel which is intended to oblige HGVs to use it while charging them up to €7 a few kilometres up the M50. It is clear that if the HGV management plan for the port tunnel is to work, we must have in place a system where the barriers are raised but no serious talks are taking place with National Toll Roads. Given the need for a decision, the matter requires the intervention of the Minister as soon as possible.