Trucks too big for port tunnel not wanted, says Taoiseach

Lorries arriving in Dublin Port which are too big to use the Dublin Port Tunnel "should be turned around and sent back" because they are not wanted, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said yesterday.

Mr Ahern's comments were immediately rejected as being "out of touch" by the transport umbrella group at Dublin Port which has been campaigning for an increase in the clearance height of the tunnel for four years.

Speaking after he inspected work on the port tunnel yesterday, Mr Ahern acknowledged that clearance height was too small for the latest generation of "super trucks" which require a clearance in excess of 4.65m (15ft 3in)

He maintained that such trucks were an unnecessary development and he ruled out any late changes to the tunnel design to accommodate them.

"Super trucks should be stopped and sent back out again . . . we don't need super trucks," he insisted.

Mr Ahern said he remembered commenting when work began on the port tunnel that it would be "up and running" in five years, and it still looked like that timetable would be achieved.

He said 18 of the 21 current national roads projects were now ahead of schedule and he criticised those who would use environmental or heritage issues to delay infrastructural projects.

In what could only be taken as a reference to the Kildare bypass - where a rare snail's habitat was discovered, and the proposed M3 in Co Meath which passes through an area of significant archaeology - Mr Ahern said: "in other countries they just get on with things. If you take a pencil and account for things like snails and archaeology you will never do anything."

He added that if a person wanted to do nothing they could stay in bed until they were 65 and probably achieve that end, but it was not his plan.

He said he regretted that the private sector had not seen fit to take his advice in 1992 on financing a tunnel under the Liffey because traffic projections then did not justify the investment.

However, Mr Ahern believed then that the traffic would grow with the economy, and his position had been justified.

He also delivered a setback to Transport Minister Martin Cullen's plans for a 10-year strategic transport plan, which Mr Cullen said as far back as last November would cover the 10 years from 2005.

Instead, Mr Ahern said yesterday that the 10-year plan would not now kick-in until the end of the current National Development Plan which expires in 2006. "We will have to wait for the end of the National Development Plan in 2006 for that," he said.

That would give a start date for the plan of 2007 at the earliest. But Mr Ahern insisted the details of the plan would be known in advance and, referring to the post-2006 start date, he said: "I think it will be out on time."

However, Jerry Kiersey of the Dublin Port Transport Umbrella Group criticised the Taoiseach's remarks in relation to super trucks.

"The Taoiseach flew over the second toll bridge when it opened and announced to his satisfaction that all traffic jams would end.

"If the Taoiseach was as good at traffic planning as he is at the rest of his job, we wouldn't have the mess that we have there now."