AA calls for single toll road tag

The AA has called on the Government to sort out a dispute over the introduction of a single electronic tag system for all of the State's toll roads.

The row centres around the incompatibility of "tag" systems now in use on the East and West-Link bridges in Dublin, the M1 and N4 motorways and the Fermoy bypass which opened yesterday.

The Eazy Pass system, owned by National Toll Roads, will operate on the East and West-Link bridges and on the M1, but it will not operate on the Kilcock-Kinnegad bypass or the Fermoy bypass.

Similarly tags in use on the M4 are not accepted at the East and West-Link bridges or the M1.

The situation is similar to the absence of integrated ticketing between all mass public transport providers in Dublin, which has been repeatedly promised by successive ministers for transport.

At the opening of the N4 Kilcock-Kinnegad bypass last December, Minister for Transport Martin Cullen promised the system would be integrated by March.

At that time M4 operator Eurolink insisted its system was built to a European standard to allow use across European tolls.

Spokesman José Tamariz told The Irish Times the Eurolink system was "completely ready", and referred delays in the operation of a single tag system to Eazy Pass and the National Roads Authority (NRA).

Eazy Pass said it was working to overcome the administrative problems involved.

Yesterday an Eazy Pass spokeswoman said it was still working to overcome the commercial and administrative difficulties and was hoping for a resolution as early as the end of this month.

However, the NRA said it was disappointed by the lack of progress. "We would have expected this matter to be resolved, we would have been hopeful that they would have tackled this issue some time ago, but we are continuing negotiations with National Toll Roads to resolve this issue as soon as possible," a spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for Mr Cullen said the issue was between the roads authority and the toll operators.

AA spokesman Conor Faughnan said he believed the difficulty lay in the promise by Mr Cullen to dismantle the West-Link toll barriers and move to open-road tolling which he said was a much more complex operation than Government had imagined.

"Congestion charging in London which operates by number plate recognition is a similar system and it has proven to be hugely expensive gobbling up nearly all of the revenue it receives in administration costs," he said.

"It is time for the Government to show some common sense and ensure that we have one electronic tag system instead of three or four systems.

"It should not be beyond the technology of the 21st century to have a single platform from which motorists could access all-island tolls from a single tag," Mr Faughnan said.