Minister unveils plans for buy out of West Link

The Government plans new legislation to strengthen its power to levy stiff fines on any toll-evading motorists when barrier-free tolling is introduced on the West Link bridge after the €600 million buyout of the bridge from National Toll Roads (NTR), reports Arthur Beesley, Senior Business Correspondent.

Outlining the terms of the buyout last night, Minister for Transport Martin Cullen said he wants to enact legislation to put a new fines regime on a "proper legal basis" before the Dáil rises for the general election.

Mr Cullen received Government approval yesterday to conclude the buyout of the controversial contract that entitles NTR to run the bridge until 2020.

While "one or two outstanding issues" remain to be agreed in the Government's talks with NTR, the Minister said the central strands of the buy-out arrangement have already been settled. Formal agreement is expected within weeks.

NTR's involvement with the West Link will cease from mid-2008. The group will receive annualised payments of €50 million plus inflation for the period from August 2008 until April 2020.

At today's prices, the deal will be worth a little under €600 million to NTR.

This is at the upper end of the price range mooted when the negotiations started to buy-out the group from a contract it agreed in 1987 when Pádraig Flynn of Fianna Fáil was minister for the environment.

That contract has been the subject of much criticism because NTR has taken the benefit from a huge increase in traffic using the State-funded M50 motorway.

With traffic congestion on the bridge increasing this week after the ban on five-axle lorries from central Dublin, the Government hopes that the combination of barrier-free tolling, a third lane in each direction of the M50 and a "free-flow interchange" system at junctions into the motorway will relieve congestion.

"By buying out the West Link Bridge - which is used by 100,000 vehicles a day - the State and the travelling public, rather than NTR, will be the direct beneficiary of the tolls. This is being done in order to develop and manage the M50 and to provide the best possible service to motorists," Mr Cullen said.

"The buyout will allow the removal of the toll plaza on the West Link and its replacement by a barrier-free tolling arrangement along the same stretch of motorway in 2008. This will coincide with the completion of the M50 upgrade on the section between the Ballymount and N4 interchanges."

A French consortium has been selected to run the barrier-free tolling system. Mr Cullen dismissed suggestions that tolls would be levied at various points on the M50, stating that tolls would be levied at the bridge for as long as there were no alternative means of public transport were not available.

Neither Mr Cullen nor NTR said what the outstanding issues were. However, the Minister said they did not include NTR's request for an indemnity against a higher tax bill when the buyout takes effect. "That has been ruled out by the Department of Finance," he said.

NTR welcomed the Government's instruction to the National Roads Authority to make the agreement.

"NTR looks forward to engaging with the NRA to conclude an agreement in the short term," it said.