Road hauliers have been accused of using ordinary motorists as "collateral damage" because of a large-scale protest today on the M50 motorway and other routes which is expected to cause major congestion. Hauliers have however called for "a bit of fair play and some joined-up thinking" in traffic management.
Diversions will be in place but the Garda has warned of the possibility of lengthy delays throughout the day on all routes leading to the M50 including the N7, M4, N2, M1 and N32.
The protest is expected to start at 5am when at least 300 trucks will assemble on the North Road at Finglas on the N2, Citywest on the Naas Road N7 and at the Point roundabout.
They will then drive slowly in convoy along the M50 to major interchanges. Later they will return the way they came.
The convoy starting from the Point is expected to drive just as far as the first roundabout at the new entrance to Dublin Port where toll booths have been built but are not yet in operation.
The Road Transport Association, 80 per cent of whose members were formerly with the Irish Road Haulage Association, is demanding that tolls on the M50 be lifted; the implementation of a traffic-management structure for "continuous flow of traffic" and that a regulator be appointed to the haulage industry.
The association said it was losing up to 40 per cent in business because of the changes for hauliers and lack of traffic management and it was "absolutely ludicrous" that truckers or ordinary motorists should have to pay tolls, given the delays.
AA Ireland says the hauliers have legitimate concerns but "innocent commuting motorists do not deserve to be used as collateral damage", according to its spokesman, Conor Faughnan.
Dublin City Council engineers had recommended, when the HGV city ban was implemented, that the southern exit of the M50 be preserved until the M50 roadworks were completed next year but elected officials had overruled this.
This was a legitimate concern for hauliers but the truckers would effectively "vandalise traffic" by their actions and the only people who would suffer were the tens of thousands of ordinary motorists. The Road Transport Association said however that the changes were having a huge effect on business.
Spokesman Michael McMahon said: "If I have a load to bring to Dún Laoghaire and leave from Dublin Port, I have to go through the port tunnel, along the entire M50 route, however long that takes, pay the tolls and then come back the same way."
Hauliers were losing 40 per cent of their business and their tolls had risen. "To make a profit you need to do three loads a day in the city but you can't do that now." He said "all these laws are coming into place but the Government doesn't seem to be worried about the impact on people".
