Pat O'Neill (Fine Gael)

The Minister has outlined the provisions of the Bill and my contribution will deal with it. He has indicated he will bring another transport Bill before the Houses of the Oireachtas next year and I will broaden the discussion to take in the issue.

I was interested to read about the wide scope of the commercial road transport sector which provides for road haulage and road passenger transport for hire and reward. An enormous amount of freight traffic is transported by road within this State. Unlike other countries, which still use their rivers and canals, particularly on the Continent, or countries that make great use of commercial trains, such as Australia, almost everything which is transported commercially within this State is transported by road. All of these operators for hire and reward require a licence from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, an aspect of EU law reflecting the EU's great work is achieving high standards of safety and good regulation right across the Union. We cannot underestimate what a positive and welcome achievement this is and, at this time where there is so much negativity around the EU project, we would do well to reflect on its many positive initiatives to protect consumers by ensuring high standards in sectors such as commercial road transport.

As the Minister and Senator O'Sullivan pointed out, the 7,000 licensed operators in Ireland operate around 25,000 large vehicles which gives some insight into the scale of the sector. Since the opening of the Dublin Port tunnel, these vehicles are no longer as visible within the city of Dublin. However, they make significant use of our motorway network. Driving on an Irish motorway late at night or very early in the morning, one can see that often the only traffic is comprised of trucks.

I have heard that since the opening of new sections of the M7 and M8 and the introduction of a toll plaza outside Portlaoise, many road users, including commercial road users, are avoiding the toll by exiting the motorway before the toll and travelling down the old Dublin to Cork road through the towns and villages of Abbeyleix, Durrow, Cullahill, Johnstown and Urlingford before rejoining the motorway outside Urlingford. This has caused some annoyance to the residents of these small towns who looked forward to saying goodbye to commercial freight vehicles when the new motorway opened. I would like to hear the Minister's views on the cost of tolls for commercial vehicles. At Portlaoise, for example, the current toll for a vehicle with four or more axles is €5.70. For businesses that would have a large number of commercial vehicles using the road network, such tolls would add significantly to the cost of doing business. I would like to hear the Minister's views on the matter. I am concerned, as many in Fine Gael are, about addressing the weaknesses in the economy around cost and competition. However, in the case of tolls, perhaps the benefit to businesses makes it worth their while in terms of the time that is saved transporting goods. I would also like to hear the Minister's views on tolls in general. We have a significant challenge ahead of us in trying to address the catastrophic economic heritage that the Government was saddled with upon taking office. The opportunities to increase Exchequer income are not unlimited and tolls may be something that become more common in the future.

Before leaving the topic of the M8 motorway, I must refer to a matter in my own county of Kilkenny. The new road does not take account of the location of a major commercial entity in north Kilkenny, namely, Glanbia. Glanbia trucks coming from Cork have to exit the M8 motorway at Urlingford and travel along the N8 road as far as Durrow to reach the factory at Ballyragget. There is no suitable exit from the motorway closer to the factory so the trucks have to travel almost 20 km on the N8 road rather than having the benefit of the motorway. That is adding to the problems previously mentioned in the small towns and villages of north Kilkenny and south Laois which find the streets still populated by commercial vehicles despite the construction of a new motorway right beside them.

While on the topic of commercial vehicles, I must refer to the Port of Waterford, which is actually located in County Kilkenny. Senator Cullinane will be aware of that. Members will have been taught in national school that Kilkenny is a landlocked county but we have the Port of Waterford.