A new approach to tolling - such as a 5 per cent fuel levy - is the most acceptable way to bring our road network financing into the 21st century, writes Tim O'Brien.
Tolls, we all hate them. But that is most likely because our experience of them is so bad.
The crazy idea that you would build a ring road around Dublin to motorway standard and ask motorists to stop their vehicle to throw coins in a bucket seems to stem from somewhere in the 16th century.
But we do.
We stop our cars - or move them very slowly indeed on the West-Link, on the M50, the M1 near Drogheda, the Fermoy by pass in Co Cork and of course the East-Link.
And with some 13 public private partnership projects planned, this is an unnecessary delay coming to a road near you.
Two ideas must be debunked.
Firstly, electronic tolls on the M50 are not going to get rid of cars queuing at tag detectors. It doesn't happen now, why would it happen when the numbers of car registrations or tags to be read heads into the stratosphere?
Secondly, tolls are unlikely to be abolished when the finite, usually 30-year pay back for the private sector partner runs out. Dublin City Council said it has no plans to declare the East-Link bridge a toll-free zone when it falls in to the council's hands at the end of 2015.
The blinkered thinking that there must be a bucket or an electronic tag, maintains the focus on the idea that we must have a barrier in place to ensure that those who don't pay can't travel.
This is of course nonsense and would be laughable if it did not have such a bad effect on the surrounding roads and the environment of local towns and villages as professional, regular road users - for that read lorries - struggle to avoid the barriers.
Look at the way private cars are flocking to the N4 Kilcock Kinnegad motorway but the lorries are still trundling through the inferior old road and continuing to choke the villages of Enfield, Moyvally and Clonard.
Nobody can say that arrangement is resulting in what was desired.
The truth is that there are many ways the National Roads Authority could have suggested to repay the private sector for building our motorways, and items such as a 5 cent or 5 per cent levy on fuel is just one.
Yes we would whinge, write letters and threaten to make it an election issue, but consider the numbers.
The traffic on the West-Link bridge is currently in the region of 100,000 vehicles a day.
Motorists are enduring current levels of disturbance while, according to recent AA estimates, the toll collects only something in the region of €70 million a year. The estimated value of the M4 toll is in the region of just €20 million, the M1 is returning a purse of about €15 million, and is it worth having a barrier at all on the M8 Fermoy bypass?
On the other hand a 5 cent / 5 per cent levy on petrol and diesel would deliver more than €110m a year according to AA figures, which would pay for all our current tolls.
There would be no problems in Enfield, Moyvalley or Clonard. Logistics would be more efficient, no problems in Fermoy, no potential problems at the proposed toll on the Waterford second crossing of the Suir close to the heart of Transport Minister Martin Cullen. Cars would not have to stop on the M1 - or carry a collection of non-interchangeable tags.
The truth is that there are many better ways to manage private sector investment in our roads.
One reason the Government is so blinkered about this is that it believes the private sector wants it like that. This is not the case. Banks do consider toll concessions blue chip assets. A toll with an annual income of €20 million and a 30-year contract for example, can expect to earn €600 million, maybe about €450 million after costs and current price adjustments.
That asset can be "securitised" - effectively mortgaged, with merchant banks allowing the contractor to realise money for further investments elsewhere.
But merchant banks in Frankfurt, London and New York like government guarantees too, and it is only blinkered thinking that has not allowed this Government to work out the kind of "shadow tolling" arrangements enjoyed in the UK. Shadow tolling involves the electronic counting of vehicles so the contractor can be paid directly by the Government, out of the 5 cent/ 5 per cent levy.
This argument has also been put forward for a long time by the AA, which have not been listened to by Government.
Conor Faughnan, the association's public affairs director, says this might be because of the perception that those in Sligo don't want to pay for roads to be built, for example, in Limerick.
Former finance minister Charlie McCreevey also held this view, stating that those who use the road should pay.
But this is more blinkered thinking. A good national road infrastructure, Faughnan argues,benefits all the nation. An economic up-turn due to better infrastructure between Dublin and Limerick benefits the economy as a whole, which is good for everyone.
"Paying locally for roads is like putting coin meters on street lights" said Mr Faughnan.