ANY NEW road tolls introduced would not come into effect for a number of years, Minister of State for Transport Alan Kelly said yesterday.
Responding to reports that plans were being drawn up to introduce tolls on existing roads, Mr Kelly said no decision had been made on the matter.
“This is a discussion we are having and it is ongoing, nothing is in stone – if any new tolls are brought in there would be a number of years before they are able to be put in place,” he said.
“Having said that , it is a serious option and we are going to have to look at it.”
On Monday the National Roads Authority placed a request for consultancy advice on the Government’s e-tenders website seeking advice on how to generate new revenue from its existing roads, and on how to maximise its income from three directly controlled toll operations.
The authority is paying almost €500,000 a month to the private operators of the M3 motorway and the N18 Limerick Tunnel because traffic has fallen short of anticipated levels.
“We don’t have enough money so we are going to have to look at ways of gaining income so that we can complete some works on roads and maintain roads,” said Mr Kelly.
“We are left with very few options here and from a safety point of view we have to maintain the roads and we have to look at tolling as an option to do that – we simply don’t have money for the roads.”
Mr Kelly was speaking yesterday at the launch of a new car-pooling website developed by the National Transport Authority.
Free to use, carsharing.ie connects people looking to car pool instead of driving individually to work or big events.
It is part of a “smarter travel” initiative already availed of by several organisations such as Hewlett Packard, Microsoft and NUI Galway, with more than 1,000 people already sharing lifts to and from work.
“It’s great to be able to provide carsharing.ie as an alternative option to single usage cars as part of our overall travel plan initiatives,” said Anne Graham, the authority’s director of public transport. “Everyone is increasingly aware of the need for environmental sustainability,” she added.
The site includes an interactive map to help people plan their journeys and either get in contact with members of a privately formed group or of the wider public who might be travelling the same route.
On hand to support the website’s inauguration were the presidents of the GAA, Football Association of Ireland and Irish Rugby Football Union, who encouraged players, teams, supporters and parents nationwide to car-pool to and from sporting fixtures to help alleviate traffic, save money and protect the environment.