Tara campaign.. Taxpayer To Pay For M3 Double Toll

Ferrovial made a sweetheart deal with the Government under which the Toll company would be compensated by the Taxpayer if traffic levels did not reach the specific/expected targets.

Ferrovial made a sweetheart deal with the Government under which the Toll company would be compensated by the Taxpayer if traffic levels did not reach the specific/expected targets.

Save Tara campaigners are calling for the resignation of the Minister for Transport, Mr. Noel Dempsey, over the issue of the tolling of the M3 motorway. Campaigners have been drawing attention to the fact that the road was to be tolled twice for years now but the message has fallen on deaf ears until recently when a letter (Meath Chronicle, 18th. July) from the campaign again drew attention to the fact that Ferrovial made a sweetheart deal with the Government under which the Toll company would be compensated by the Taxpayer if traffic levels did not reach the specific/expected targets. (Campaigners have also drawn attention to the fact that the tolling period is 45 years and not 30 as reported widely in the press.)

The traffic figures on the existing N3 are dropping yearly since its peak in May '06 when it reached 19,042, the latest figures available are for March '09 and they have fallen by nearly 3,000 to 16,279. These figures will continue to fall as Meath now records the highest job losses in the country. Unemployment has risen by 116% in a year and the total unemployed in the county now stands at 11,498.

In the coming years there will be less people moving to Meath for housing as the prices in Dublin continue to fall - the rise in the population of Meath was mainly due to Dubliners who could not afford to live in their own county due to high house prices. Given a choice, commuters will chose to live in neighbouring Kildare where there are no tolls and there is a decent alternative public transport system from the commuter towns of Maynooth and Leixlip in particular.

As far as an alternative public transport system for county Meath is concerned, this deal with Ferrovial means that the Government now has a conflict of interest vis a vis the rail option and the M3 motorway. Any proposal for any public transport alternative for Meath commuters will be handicapped by the necessity for the Government to consider the damage such proposals might inflict on traffic volumes on the M3. As an example - the site of the Pace railway station (after the Toll Plaza on the M3) demonstrates this point graphically - you can have the rail alternative but not until you first pay the toll on the M3.