Shane Ross (Independent)

One could never rile the Minister, he is a picture of calm and sobriety all the time. It is not a problem. The difficulty about what I had to listen to from the Minister that day was this: it is all very well coming out with fanfares and sending one's press office with messages to the media that he was going to open the West Link toll bridge, which he did last January and again in recent weeks, but the West Link toll bridge is still closed. Every day of the week people are queueing up and are asked to be positive by Senator Wilson and the Minister. Why do they have to put up with this? I lay the reason firmly and squarely at the hands of the Government, not at the hands of NTR. It is in the power of the Minister, as at this minute, to set the toll at zero and he knows that. If he set the toll at zero today all he would have to do would be to compensate National Toll Roads which is what he intends to already. Instead of that he has decided to promise this in August 2008, in order to try to passify people before the general election. This is a gimmick.