Proposals to introduce tolls on 11 new road schemes have been described by the Automobile Association as "daft". The 11 projects are part of the National Development Plan, and £1 billion of the £4.7 billion needed to build them will come from private financing.
Most of the tolls will be £1.10 per car, but it will cost £1.65 to drive the new route from Kilcock to Kinnegad. Lorrydrivers will be charged £2.30 or £3.
An AA spokesman, Mr Conor Faughnan, said: "From a traffic planning perspective, it's daft. It's the most expensive way of providing infrastructure. It hits motorists and business with extra costs and causes traffic to divert from the new bypass." Mr Faughnan said he favoured "shadow tolls", under which the Government pays back the private sector, to taking tolls directly from drivers.
The roads to be tolled are: a second bridge at West-Link on the M50 in Dublin; the N7 Limerick Southern Ring Road Phase 2; the N25 Waterford bypass; the M1/N1 Dundalk western bypass; the N3 Clonee-Kells; the N4 Kilcock-Kinnegad; the N6 Oranmore-N6 East; the N7 Portlaoise-Castletown; the N8 Portlaoise-Cullahill; the N7 Nenagh-Limerick; and the N8 Fermoy bypass.
Yesterday the Fermoy Bypass Group challenged the proposals. It claims that tolls are an expensive and dangerous method of tackling traffic congestion. The group's chairman, Mr Donal O'Lochlainn, said he feared that many motorists would continue to drive through Fermoy to avoid the fee.
Objections to the proposed tolls have been dismissed by Mr Gerry Murphy, manager of the National Roads Authority's Public-Private Partnership. He said the fees were "modest", and private financing was essential. "If we don't have them we just don't build a quarter of our programme," he said.
