Seanad debates

Wednesday, 7 March 2007

Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage

 

3:00 pm

Photo of Paul BradfordPaul Bradford (Fine Gael)

The moral of the story is not to be last in either the car queue or the speaker's queue.

I know the Minister's personal commitment to the Bill. However, many questions relating to our approach to tolling and road construction have arisen. I agree with Senator Browne's proposal for a fuel surcharge rather than tolling as a means to raising road-building funds. Several months ago the Minister opened the Fermoy bypass, one which had been sought by the local community for 20 years. Yet, because of the position of the toll bridge, 60% of the traffic that it was hoped would travel on the bypass still goes through Fermoy, Rathcormac and Watergrasshill. A bypass for Watergrasshill was provided four years ago but because of the recently introduced tolling scheme on it, traffic is avoiding it by going back through the village. It is causing much disquiet. The Minister indicated he would visit the area to see the impact of the tolling scheme. Will he do so over the next several weeks? From the village's point of view, a bypass is not working properly.

One section relates to the provision of service and rest areas on the national road network. I welcome that. As recently as this morning I received correspondence from a constituent who has been in touch with the Minister's office, if not with the Minister himself, as well as with the office of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche. That person, a lorry driver who travels long distances across the country, made the same point that he has made to various Departments.

Under the tachograph system, he must stop every so often to rest. It is not possible to do so on most main roads and he is not allowed to halt on the hard shoulder. To comply with one rule, he must break another. It is important that we act on the provision of service and rest areas as quickly as possible. Provision is made in the Bill, and we must encourage people to build them urgently for the sake of road safety. I wish I had more time but I welcome the provision of such areas.

I know decisions were taken long before the Minister took up his present post, but I ask that he re-examine the tolling scheme and the system of road building. We must see if there are better alternatives, as I suspect may be the case.

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