A toll charge on a new tunnel crossing under the river Shannon would have a damaging impact on industries in Limerick city and in the port of Foynes, an oral hearing has heard. Karl Hanlon reports.
Objections were raised yesterday at the National Roads Authority (NRA) hearing into the proposed toll scheme on the second phase of the €350 million Limerick Southern Ring Road.
The 10-kilometre stretch of dual carriageway, which includes a tunnel under the Shannon, is due for completion in 2008.
The National Roads Authority has proposed a toll of nearly €1.60 a car and more than €5 for articulated lorries using the new western bypass of Limerick city.
It estimates that more than 22,000 vehicles will use the road daily, including some 1,600 heavy goods vehicles, generating an estimated €18 million in revenue in 2008.
A representative of the Irish Road Haulage Association, Mr Eugene Drennan, said yesterday that businesses located along the Shannon estuary and in the port of Foynes would be the worst hit by the proposed toll.
"Tolls simply don't work close to cities or urban areas. They cause logjam and the cost to the public is phenomenal. We already need all the help we can get without setting up further barriers to our trade. At a cost of more than €5 for an articulated lorry, this toll will drive up costs enormously and the businesses will be forced to pass on the cost to the consumer," he said.
Limerick city councillor, Mr John Gilligan, accused the Government of imposing a double taxation on motorists who, he said, were already paying the highest motor taxes in Europe.
"The charges we already have on motoring in Ireland are astronomical. An average motor car costs €13,000 to buy, but once the Government puts its taxes on to it with VAT and Vehicle Registration Tax the cost jumps up to €21,000. They already get €3.8 billion in motoring taxes every year including taxes on fuel, motor repairs and VRT, and now they say we need an extra tax to cross the river - I flatly object to that.
"The Government charges the highest indirect taxes in Europe on motoring and now they're going to charge on a European system as well for using the roads - it's simply unacceptable," he said.
However, Mr Gerry Murphy of the NRA told the hearing that the proposed tolls had taken into account the ability of people to pay, and that cost levels were consistent with the European average. "If anything, our tolls are at the lower end of the European average. More than 20 countries in Europe now have toll roads and tolling is necessary to bring our road infrastructure up to the required level."