The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, has won well-deserved plaudits for taking decisive action, notably on the introduction of the penalty points system for speeding on our roads. But there is surely something Canute-like about his decision that "supertrucks" will be banned from entering this State, at least through Dublin Port, because they will not fit into the €625 million Port Tunnel when it is finally completed in 2005.
Fine Gael's transport spokesman, Mr Denis Naughten, has described the Minister's move as "farcical" and suggested that he should take a reality check rather than trying to bury his head in the sand. Indeed he should. The fact is that road haulage policy in Britain, still our biggest trading partner, favours taller trucks because all of the evidence suggests that they are more economical for the transport of lighter loads, such as insulation materials. And because they can carry larger volumes, their use has helped to reduce the overall number of truck movements and, therefore, the environmental impact of road haulage. As a result, it may be anticipated that the proportion of "supertrucks" will increase over time to a level well above the 3 per cent figure cited by Dublin City Council in defence of its unwillingness to increase the clearance height of the Port Tunnel.
The standard clearance height set by the National Roads Authority for motorway overbridges is 5.3 metres. Yet the clearance height for the Port Tunnel - an underground dual-carriageway, in effect - was set at 4.65 metres, even though the NRA is the ultimate client for this expensive piece of infrastructure.
The project was first approved in 1994 and should have been subject to ongoing design review before large sections of it were cast in concrete. Did its engineers notice the emergence and growing use of "high-cube" vehicles? How confident can they be that the tunnel will still cater for the vast bulk of port-related traffic in, say, 50 years time?
A figure of €100 million or more has been quoted as the cost of increasing its clearance height to accommodate taller trucks. But it would appear that the contractors were never formally asked to price it. Mr Brennan cannot draw a line in the sand like King Canute of old. For if the European Union was to rule that his action constituted a restriction on trade, it could only be defended on environmental grounds. And in this case such a defence would not stand up. The evidence shows that the use of larger trucks reduces the overall number of juggernauts on the roads and, therefore, the environmental impact of road haulage for the transportation of goods.