REARVIEW:The Government's recent plans to save billions by prioritising certain infrastructure projects, has led to accusations of a Dublin bias.
It’s not without some merit, particularly when viewed through the eyes of a rural motorist. Neither the Navan rail link nor Western Rail Corridor were mentioned in the recent spending plans to 2016, yet the Metro North and Dart underground were given the green light.
Outside Ireland’s cities, people are forced to use their cars for everyday transport, from getting children to school, commuting to work, or even popping to the shop to buy a pint of milk. Yet, in the cities, citizens have access to buses, trams and trains.
Many people outside the capital, particularly those with a family, need to have more than one car, while many city dwellers are well into their late 20s and 30s before they ever need to learn to drive.
There are obvious advantages to living outside a city and of course everybody has a degree of free choice in where they live. However, the imbalanced need for a car in rural areas must be considered when Governments decide on taxation and transport policy. Rural motorists already pay more in motor-related taxes on fuel and the like simply because they are forced to rely on cars more often, and over greater distances, than their urban counterparts.
The focus on spending billions of taxpayers’ money on public transport projects in the capital will compound this and see rural dwellers, whose general taxes help fund the same projects, essentially pay more.
Furthermore, the other suggestion, that national roads be tolled, will not greatly affect those who live in Dublin, yet it would be an outrageous and unfair to tax those who use these roads in their everyday business and who are unable to avail of an adequate public transport system.