Hauliers and the Dublin Port Company reacted angrily yesterday to Dublin City Council's decision to ban large lorries from the city centre, with the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) threatening to sue the council.
Heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) with five axles or more will be banned from the city streets between 7am and 7pm within two months of the opening of the Dublin Port Tunnel later this year. Lorries with four axles will face the ban once the planned M50 upgrade is completed.
Councillors have also voted to close the "surface access" routes to the port via East Wall Road and Seán Moore Road for vehicles with five axles or more from January 1st, 2007, with the closure applying to lorries with four axles after the M50 upgrade, the first phase of which is due for completion in 2008.
However, hauliers said that the council is acting beyond its authority and they are prepared to take legal action to stop the ban.
"We can't have a situation that a bunch of part-time politicians, which is what the councillors are, dictating policy that will interfere with the import and export business of the country," Jimmy Quinn of the IRHA said.
By closing off the surface access routes, the council was forcing hauliers heading for the south bank to use the East Link Bridge, for which they are required to pay a toll.
"The council is a stakeholder in the docks and by forcing us to use the East Link they are forcing us to use a tolled road that they are stakeholders in . . . There are elements of fairness there that have to be questioned," he said.
Mr Quinn also claimed the council was "misleading" Dubliners by not highlighting the fact that HGVs which deliver to businesses in the city would have to be exempt from the ban.
The council has said that a restricted permit system would be in place for HGVs requiring city access.
However, Mr Quinn said there had been a lack of transparency in relation to how that system would operate. "If we knew what criteria would be used for the issuing of permits, we would be happier."
The Dublin Port Company said the council's HGV strategy was flawed and would worsen city traffic.
"We are disappointed by the decision, as it will have disastrous consequences for our city's traffic, the environment and consumers," company chief executive Enda Connellan said.
The council had failed to undertake an impact assessment of the strategy and in the absence of the M50 upgrade, HGV trips could take up to four times longer, Mr Connellan said.
Councillors have responded to the hauliers' hostile reaction to the plan.
"The citizens of this city are fed up to the teeth with port traffic running through residential areas on its way to Dublin Port.
"The use of a tunnel that cost over €700 million to build is being provided to the haulage industry free of charge, yet all they do is engage in bully-boy tactics and threaten legal action," Fine Gael councillor Naoise Ó Muirí said.
Meanwhile, the National Roads Authority has given final approval for the toll rates for non-HGV vehicles using the port tunnel, with a lower night-time rate than previously published.
The toll has been set at €12 for cars travelling into the city at morning rush hour, 6am to 10am, and out of the city at the evening peak time, 4pm to 7pm, Monday to Friday.
At all other times, and when travelling against the flow of rush hour traffic, the toll will be €6, except between 10pm and 6am, when a €3 toll will apply.
