Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has ruled out lifting the toll barriers at the West-Link bridge on the M50 in the short term.
He said that he and other members of the Cabinet had a series of meetings with engineers in recent months.
"They are of the opinion that this would be a disaster. Their view is that it might help a limited amount of traffic, going straight, but that the tailbacks on all the intersections would make the entire M50 unworkable."
Mr Ahern was replying to Labour leader Pat Rabbitte, who referred to the "daily hell" experienced by motorists on the M50, specifically the blockage at the West-Link toll bridge. He added that the Government had been requested, on a number of occasions, to have the barrier lifted while the renovation of the M50 was ongoing.
Mr Rabbitte asked if it was the case that after spending €600 million to buy back the bridge, the Government proposed to install tolls at four different points on the M50.
Mr Ahern said that as he understood it, there would be one toll on the new road when completed.
In the intervening time, the cost of compensating National Toll Roads, the cost of phase two of the M50 upgrade, the cost of upgrading the West-Link section and the cost of barrier-free tolling would be met from the total revenue from barrier-free tolling on the M50 up to 2013.
Mr Rabbitte said the only point he was clear about, arising from the Taoiseach's reply, was that "motorists are staring into Dante's Inferno between now and mid-2008".
There was going to be an "unmitigated disaster" during the refurbishment of the M50, he claimed.
"The situation is intolerable for motorists and what the Taoiseach is now saying is that no remedial action of any kind will be taken. He is sheltering behind the advice of engineers and others who contributed their fair share to the mess in the first place."
Declaring that he had difficulty following the Taoiseach, Mr Rabbitte added: "The Taoiseach did not make any mention of the cost, nor of the tax treatment. He did not query the DKM figures of €900 million forgone in revenue. He did not query the figure of €600 million reported in The Irish Times this morning."
Mr Rabbitte said it would cost about one-tenth of the cost of the buy-back to build a new bridge.
Did the Government have any plans to investigate the original 1987 contract, "which so disadvantaged the State and which has left us with a situation that we cannot even build a bridge?"
He said that the State "cannot even build a new bridge adjacent to the present bridge because of the contract entered into by Pádraig Flynn, George Redmond and Tom Roche".
Mr Ahern said that the Government and the National Roads Authority were committed to improving the level of service provided to motorists on the M50.
