Derek McDowell (Labour)

Senators are being much nicer to one another. The temperature has gone down, for some strange reason.

It would be important to gain access to the registration database in Northern Ireland if possible. This may require intergovernmental agreement. I imagine it will be difficult to grant the tolling company access to our database of car registration details and perhaps we should attempt to extend this to Northern Ireland. It will cause a degree of resentment if people believe a significant number of cars on the M50, those from Northern Ireland, can avoid the toll.

Senator Ross's point about multi-point tolling is logically correct. As a Member of the Opposition I will not suggest tolling every approach road to the M50 but it makes no sense that Senator Wilson can go from here to Cavan without having to pay. A significant number of those who use the road do not pay and those misfortunate enough to live and work on different sides of the toll must pay. The logic of it is compelling, as is the politics. Being a politician I have no intention of taking that point any further but the Minister knows what I am saying.

One of the major problems with the M50 is that it was built as a ring road. A few years ago the Minister stated that 84% of traffic on it was local and was not using it as a ring road or a bypass. We must consider other options. Public transport must be improved and metro west is not sufficient. It will provide a transport option for those who seek to travel around the western fringes of the city and access the airport but we must complete that loop by connecting it with the Dart line, a project that is not part of Transport 21.

Like the Green Party I am not a major enthusiast for roads but, objectively, we have no choice but to build a ring road, given the urban sprawl of west Dublin. The M50 is no longer a ring road and we need one. It is counter-intuitive for me but we must accept the need for an outer ring road and plan for it because it will take at least 20 years to complete.

Planning is an essential part of the process, and not just for roads. Someone pointed out at the time that building several large shopping centres next to the M50 was a crazy decision. Those who seek to use the runways into the centres block up the M50. I hope we have learned from it but I am not sure. A large retail centre is fairly close to the M50. We cannot position such outlets in proximity to the road without impacting on the road. It will not work if the road is intended to provide quick access around the city and cars are backed onto the road. This message needs to go out to the three local authorities involved. Some of their actions in recent months suggest they have not got the message.

We must consider the port. A huge number of HGVs use the port but the capacity of the port traffic to grow seems infinite. The Minister referred to the phenomenal increase in freight. All these HGVs and freight cannot be accommodated at Dublin Port as it is. Either it is expanded seawards, existing functions are relocated elsewhere or another port is developed. The expansion of the port should happen somewhere other than in the city centre.