John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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732. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will clarify the reason the Government are currently paying in the region of €10 million in subsidies over the next decade to a Spanish company (details supplied) and its operating concessionary partner for toll generated on the M3 Motorway and also the Limerick Motorway; in view of the deplorable state of the roads here particularly rural roads in many parts of the country; the steps he intends to take to renegotiate the current contracts held with these companies concerned as the Portuguese Government have recently done; his views on whether the outlay could be easily be redirected to address road surfacing issues throughout the country; if his Department are currently looking into the possibility of re-negotiating these contracts; if so, the steps that have been taken to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49312/13]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The payment of the traffic guarantee payments are the result of legally binding contracts that the National Roads Authority (NRA) entered into with the relevant Public Private Partnership (PPP) consortia. The Deputy will be aware that as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, I have responsibility for overall policy and funding in relation to the national roads programme. The implementation of individual national road schemes, including PPP projects, is a matter for the NRA under the Roads Acts 1993-2007.  

In addition, the statutory power to levy tolls on national roads, to make toll bye-laws and to enter into toll agreements with private investors in respect of national roads is vested in the NRA under Part V of the Roads Act (as amended).  The contracts for the privately-operated toll schemes including the two PPP contracts, the M3 Clonee-Kells PPP and the Limerick Tunnel PPP, where a traffic guarantee mechanism is in place are, therefore, commercial agreements between the NRA and the PPP concessionaires concerned.  The Limerick Tunnel concession commenced from August 2006.  The M3 Clonee to Kells concession commenced from April 2007.

These are legally binding contracts that cannot be unilaterally renegotiated by either party. While it would be obviously much more satisfactory to spend the money going on traffic guarantee payments on the maintenance and restoration of our roads, that is unfortunately not possible without changing the terms and conditions of the contract, and there has been no indication from either of the PPP consortia of a willingness to do so. My understanding is that the Portuguese government renegotiated their PPP contracts to extend payments over a longer period of time, so while payments are reduced in the short-term, the Portuguese government will pay more in the long-term. Given the responsibility of the NRA in this area, I have referred the Deputy's question to them for further reply. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a reply within 10 working days.