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In November 1999 the NRA, as the tolling authority for national roads, concluded a draft agreement with NTR to provide for the construction of the Second West-Link Toll Bridge. The Authority was obliged to enter into exclusive negotiations with NTR for the Second West-Link Bridge as under the 1987 West-Link Agreement concluded between NTR and Dublin County Council, NTR have the exclusive right to toll traffic travelling on the M50 between the N4 (Galway Road interchange) and the N3 (Navan Road interchange) until the expiry of the concession in 2020. The Second West-Link Bridge agreement provided for NTR to be fully recouped the cost of providing the Second Bridge through an increase in the car toll rate (approximately 20 cent).

The draft agreement was concluded on the basis that VAT was not applicable to tolls. In July 2000, the European Court of Justice ruled that VAT must be applied to tolls and the Finance Act, 2001 provided that this ruling be implemented as of September 2001.

The effect of the application of VAT together with the negotiated 20 cent increase on the car toll would have resulted in the private car toll charge rising from IR£0.80 (approx. €1) as of August 2001 to a car toll charge €1.60 on the 1st of January 2002. The NRA was concerned at a sharp rise in the toll charge in the space of 4 months, September 2001 to January 2002, particularly as there would be no improvement in the level of service at West-Link until September 2003 when the second bridge opened.

Despite the construction of the second bridge and additional lanes, and the introduction of electronic toll collection, the toll plaza is sub-optimal having regard to the daily traffic throughput to be catered for. The 14 lane West-Link toll plaza is, today, processing traffic volumes approaching 90,000 vehicles each day which represents an increase of almost 9 per cent on the 2003 average daily flows. Daily flows of 100,000 vehicles are now the norm  at West-Link. These traffic volumes are significantly in excess of the traffic volumes that had been forecast to use the M50/West-Link and reflect the growth in the Irish economy and the extent of development in the Dublin area over recent years. In contrast, the Drogheda Bypass toll plaza, which was designed by the National Roads Authority and which came into operation in June 2003, is a 10 lane plaza (5 lanes in each direction) and processes approximately 24,000 vehicles per day.

In that government, which negotiated the original lousy deal for taxpayers,Charles Haughey was Taoiseach. Padraig Flynn was Minister for the Environment. George Redmond was the acting Dublin City and County manager. 

Their advisors calculated that initially the Westlink toll bridge on the M50 would carry 11,000 vehicles per year, and by 2020 the figure would rise to 45,000. Now in 2007 the actual figure is a staggering 100,000 and the gridlock, caused in part by the barriers on the bridge, is beyond description. The state now gets 80% of all toll charges exceeding 90,000 for the year 2007 for example. The lousy deal originally negotiated has actually become a plus for the taxpayer at the very moment of betrayal and sellout by Ahern & Cullen.! 

The present government's solution: transfer of ownership from National Toll Roads to the government at a cost of €600m and replacement of the barriers by electronic tolling. Destroy the unforeseen bonus for the state just as it surfaces. 

While the Authority considers that the toll operator is managing the individual lane throughputs at the plaza efficiently, it is nonetheless the case that the toll facility at West-Link is not satisfactory for the current traffic volumes. It is both the NRA’s and NTR’s view that the solution at West-Link is to convert the West-Link Toll Plaza to a fully free-flow electronic toll collection system over time. By this is meant that road users would meet no barriers at West-link and would pass through at standard motorway speed. For electronic tag holders the toll fee would be deducted automatically from their account. It is envisaged that users without electronic tags would be able to make payments after their passage by means of telephone/internet/post. It is the Authority’s intention that this free-flow stage will be reached to coincide with the opening of the fully upgraded M50 in and around 2010. To this end the Department of Transport is currently preparing legislation that will support the introduction of barrier free tolling.

Somehow, somewhere, in the deliberations of Martin Cullen and NTR, a row between who would pay for the free flow traffic system apparently resulted in Cullen deciding instead to buy out the bridge for a whopping 600 million euros of taxpayers money. Considering that the state is receiving 80% of much of the current excess traffic revenue(They were already getting 50% of every toll in VAT and agreed profit division before the surge in traffic)-and that a modest increase in traffic volume in coming years would see the state(taxpayer) continuing to profit to the tune of 80% of the toll fees-why buy out a good thing and hand NTR 800 million euros. Corruption.? Incompetence.? Who knows.

According to figures on the official web site of the NRA.

http://www.nra.ie/PublicPrivatePartnership/ProjectTracker/M50SecondWest-LinkBridge/

By way of example, for the year 2004 average annual daily traffic was in the region of 86,500. As such the Exchequer Share is calculated as follows:

I AM lucky. My two children in Dublin are lucky. But the nightmare that is the commuting experience is taking away our luck and gradually eating away at a lifestyle that was worked out with considerable thought. The children are lucky because they are bright, talented teenagers who have parents who spend time with them and love them. This is despite the fact that their mother and I have been been separated for some years. When this happened, we agreed the children would stay in the family home with their mother, a couple of miles away from their secondary school. Two days a week, they would stay with me, and I would take them to school the next day.

This worked well for the first couple of years but then I moved to a house by the Liffey, just six and a half miles from the city centre. The children had incredibly fond memories of the house and it would give them and me some space to live, develop and enjoy life a bit more . . . OK, it would mean a bit more driving; but without complaint, every week they decamped to me and then packed up their things a couple of days later. Now though, despite their protestations, I know life is changing. The nearest bus route is half an hour's walk away, and though I often cycle to work, I'm not going to make them ride the eight and a half miles to school. The road outside the house isjust too dangerous, for one thing.

A journey to school that should take 30 minutes is now often taking at least 90. We have to wait to join the traffic outside the house, we move at walking pace to enter Phoenix Park, we then might be stuck outside the polo grounds for an age, we then queue to join the traffic on the quays, then to turn at Christ Church . . . and on it goes.

The children are getting tetchy, I am increasingly frustrated and at any moment sparks might fly from any of us. Two teenagers are going to be late for school, their names will be taken for detention, they might be letting down their partners for cookery or science. And later that day, we have to do it all over again to get home. Homework then has to be done, meals made and eaten - and if we're lucky, we might have time to relax . Last Monday, I spent eight hours driving just three 17-mile round trips.

The kids wonder why should they put themselves through it. I agree. Travelling those wasted hours screws up the start of their week and mine. We are not enjoying our life together as we should. And if we are not - and we are privileged middle-class people who have worked out a way of living based on two houses, two cars and two open minds - then thousands more must be having their family lives mutilated because of horrendous traffic policies. It is making me upset - and very, very angry.

(From a report in the Irish Independent)

The buy out of the Toll Bridge is a scandalous waste of money.The state will shortly, according to their original contract ,be benefitting from a revenue take of almost 100% of all extra vehicles on the M50.

The simple solution of  sufficient booths, pre-paid, and electronic tolling, is being discarded .Every vehicle using the road could have an obligatory on line pre-paid account with NTR and the bridge could be opened tomorrow using scanning technology.

Instead 800 million euros is being paid to the NTR syndicate of wealthy farmers and big business just when the bridge is reaching its optimum benefit for the state. This is Martin Cullens greatest ever betrayal of the taxpayers of Ireland.

Every other country in Europe can operate an efficient toll plaza on a two or three lane highway-why not in Ireland.?

So much for 800 million in NTR,s pockets, plus a few billion for the Port Black Hole.This is a scam which none of the media or opposition parties have picked up on. It is of course possible that after the pay-off and after the election, three new toll booths may emerge along the length of the entire M-50,and ALL the revenue may accrue to the state.!!

There is either magnificent incompetence and waste in this buyout-or plain old corrupt cronyism.

The Soldiers of Destiny and Martin Cullen had another scheme to place three new tolls on the M-50 only 2 years ago which A spokesperson for the A.A. (Automobile Association) Mr Faughnan described as " madness".

Mr Faughnan,s analysis may be somewhat ingenuous.

Note for Martin Cullen: Please send my consultancy fees to Soldiers of Destiny.org, Gran Canaria,Spain.

Total due: 300,001 Euros. (5% discount if paid within 7 days)

You may be wondering about the odd 1 euro,well it's a point of principal. Cause I'm worth more than Monica Leech.!