THE GOVERNMENT says it has “no plans” to toll the new M9 Dublin to Waterford motorway which opened to traffic yesterday.
Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey confirmed that the M9 would be the only inter-urban motorway in the State entirely free to use by motorists. He said a plan to impose tolls had been judged not “commercially viable”.
A spokesman for the National Roads Authority said that “private investors had put up the money” for some of the other motorways “which they would get back over a 30-year span by tolling”.
However, the projected light volume of traffic on the M9 had failed to attract any private investment and the road was funded “entirely by the taxpayer”.
The Minister yesterday opened the final €467 million 40km section of the motorway which traverses Co Kilkenny and reduces the journey time from the Red Cow roundabout in Dublin to Waterford to about 90 minutes.
Asked why the new motorway had been built without rest areas or service stations, the Minister said “there are facilities off all of these roads” and that he had asked the authority “to look at ways and means of doing that that’s not going to cost the taxpayer anything”
However, the NRA spokesman told The Irish Timesthere was no plan to build a services area on the M9 because: "unfortunately. . . the money's not there". He said the NRA was however "implementing a national signage programme to mitigate the lack of services so that when you are driving on a new motorway you'll know exactly where to go for petrol, food etc."
