Thomas P. Broughan
Ceist:108 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for the Environment his views on the tolling of the Dublin C Ring Road. [6670/96]
Vol. 463 No. 4
108 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for the Environment his views on the tolling of the Dublin C Ring Road. [6670/96]
I refer to the comprehensive reply to Questions Nos. 4, 59 and 182 of 7 November 1995 in which I outlined in some detail the statutory position governing the tolling of roads, including the powers and responsibilities of the different bodies involved; the procedures which must be followed before tolls can be introduced on any route; the extent of public consultation involved; and my quasi-judicial role in reaching a decision on any individual toll proposals. In that reply, I also outlined the guidelines on the tolling of national roads set out in the National Development Plan, 1994-1999 which are similar to those adopted by successive Governments since 1985.
The National Development Plan envisaged the development of toll proposals to generate a sum of up to £100 million to be used to accelerate the development of the national road network. The plan specifically indicated that the assessment of all toll proposals would have regard to the diversion of traffic likely to be caused by tolling; this would have to include consideration of the types of traffic likely to be diverted, the probable impact on adjacent residential areas and the expected additional road construction-maintenance costs arising from the diversion.
The Dublin C Ring will operate as a by-pass of Dublin for North-South traffic and will also function as a distributor route for Dublin traffic. With unrestricted access, traffic volumes could quickly reach capacity levels. With this in mind, the final report of the Dublin Transportation Initiative specifically identified road user charging as one of the measures which could be considered to control the growth in traffic on the route and obviate the need for heavy additional investment in expanding capacity.