Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

I thank Senator Terry for sharing her time with me.

The final part of the Fine Gael motion highlights the unusual intensity of tolling that is proposed for the road between Galway and Dublin. Senator Kitt suggested that motorists could take alternative routes if they want to avoid the tolls, but the sad reality is that truck drivers who tried to avoid the single existing toll were told that the local authority would take them to court to force them to use the toll road. Therefore, I do not think the Senator's simplistic response is realistic.

If this country is aiming for a regional balance in development, imposing four tolls on people travelling, whether with goods or otherwise, from Galway to Dublin Airport or the port tunnel is simply punitive. The proposed tolls would be on Galway's outer ring road, at Cappataggle near Ballinasloe, at Kinnegad and finally on the M50. In no other place in Europe or elsewhere in the world would one find such an intensity of proposed toll routes.

At a time when many Government agencies are trying to develop a regional balance between the west and the east of the country, people are still coming up with such daft ideas. I am sorry the Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, is no longer present, but that is the reality of the tolling situation that he, in conjunction with the NRA, has proposed. The proposal is not acceptable and must be changed, whatever consequences the Minister claims.