I wish to return to the issue of the M50. Yesterday the Taoiseach seemed to want to distance himself and the Government from the announcement made on television on Friday night by Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, and subsequent stories by him and inspired by him, to the effect the Government plans to lift the barrier on the West Link bridge and install four new tolls along the M50. The only thing that is clear from yesterday is that the hard-pressed motorist can expect no alleviation between now and 2008. Will the Taoiseach confirm that the Government proposes to take no action between now and 2008, despite the fact that additional trucks will spew onto the bridge from the port tunnel at a daily rate equivalent to the normal net annual increase in traffic, according to the Secretary General of the Department? The upgrade works have started and will take two years, which means it is now that motorists need the barrier to be lifted.

As I said, the Taoiseach seemed to deny the Minister, Deputy Cullen's inspired statements. The Irish Independent on Saturday stated “the Irish Independent has learned that motorists will face more than three replacement State electronic tolls situated at regular intervals along the motorway”.

That was never said by me and the Deputy knows that. He is making it up as he goes along.

The new system, according to The Irish Times——

He is making it all up.

I ask the Minister to allow the Deputy to continue.

That is wonderful research, reading the national newspapers.

According to The Irish Times, “The new system, which will be implemented by the National Roads Authority (NRA), will mean that the entire road will be tolled, with toll charges based on the amount of the route used”.

Is the Taoiseach saying that the two journalists involved made up the story? Is he saying that it came out of nowhere and denying the veracity of the articles? I wish to quote back the sentence written by the Civil Service in the Taoiseach's note from yesterday, as distinct from his own remarks. The civil servant English reads as follows: "The NRA will invite tenders for the design, building and operation of a multi-point, free flow, barrier-free toll regime on the M50". Amid all the Taoiseach's denials of the Minister, Deputy Cullen — I can understand why the Taoiseach would want to distance himself from the Minister — he planted that sentence from the Civil Service. What does that mean? What does a multi-point, free flow, barrier-free toll regime on the M50 mean if it does not mean what the Minister's briefing staff said it meant, namely that the Government proposes to implement a number of different toll points on the M50? What will the NRA be inviting tenders for, if the Government does not propose to do that? Is it inviting tenders for the amusement of finding out how much it will cost, like so many other projects about which we know? What does the sentence, "The NRA will invite tenders for the design, building and operation of a multi-point, free flow, barrier-free toll regime on the M50" actually mean?

The sources of Deputy Rabbitte's information are two newspapers and what civil servants have said. If he gives me a minute or two, I will inform him of the Government's position.

We began this week to spend an additional €1 billion on the M50, to increase capacity by 50% over the next number of years.

It will still be congested when it is finished.

This, coupled with the completion of the Naas Road project, will significantly help the flow of traffic.

It will be gridlocked.

The Government is anxious to remove the toll plaza.

Travelling by bicycle would be faster.

The Taoiseach, without interruption please.

The Deputies do not really want to know what I think, they want to use their sources. The Government is anxious to remove the toll plaza as soon as possible. We will not get rid of tolling, but will move to electronic, free flow tolling on the motorway.

Is the Taoiseach going to put the Minister of Transport in charge of an electronic system?

We cannot just walk away from the contract with NTR, which runs until 2020 and not pay the company. Legally, we cannot do that. We are advised it will take about a year to go through the procurement process and then to go through all of the technical arrangements. I personally believe that is an extremely long period of time, but I am advised that is the position. It should be possible to take a system operating elsewhere and do it quicker but I am told we must go through the EU procurement process so the NRA can get NTR out of the system. That is the reason.

I clearly stated yesterday that between now and the end of the year — it stated October but from what I have heard it is likely it will run into November and up to the Christmas period — there will be an enormously detailed assessment of the traffic requirements on the entire M50, which has not been done as part of the original An Bord Pleanála decision.

It has been done already and it predicted gridlock.

At the end of or during that the Government will decide how to move on. People in the NRA have views about how we best do that, but the Government will make the decision. There are views about many things in the NRA the Government disagrees with. We went along with some of them and got ourselves into plenty of hot water in the process.

It did not want to build motorways but the Government did.

The Government's lousy planning caused the mess.

It spent €18 billion.

We will listen to its views, but the Government will make the decision. I cannot answer for what was stated last week or what people might have thought, I am stating the position of the Minister, my position and the position of the Government.

The Taoiseach has disowned two reputable journalists, the NRA and the Civil Service, and then he tells me the Government position. Why is this procurement process necessary if the toll plaza on the bridge is simply being reinstated? It is private property. The Government must be going through the procurement process because it is erecting these gantries along the M50 that the Minister for Transport told us about. There is no other explanation.

The Taoiseach now comes into this House, after all the years of protesting on behalf of hard-pressed motorists trying to commute to work in the morning and get home in the evening, and tells us that there must now be assessments of traffic flows and a year spent on procurement. What have all the Ministers for Transport been doing down the years? How can we have reached a stage after nine years where the Government is now monitoring traffic flows? Tell the people the truth. The Government proposes to take no action between now and 2008 despite additional traffic from the port tunnel and the disruption caused by the refurbishment of the M50. Despite that additional punishment for hard-pressed motorists, no action will be taken.

The Taoiseach has discounted the fanciful, inspired press briefings by the Minister for Transport, saying there is nothing in them, but why would he put this project out to tender through the public procurement process if he does not intend to implement a State-controlled electronic barrier-free tolling system around the M50, as has been reported by these journalists, who did not make it up, no matter what the Taoiseach says? Here we are after nine years with the situation getting worse, with the Minister saying one thing and the Taoiseach implying something else.

The scaremongering bloody Labour Party. This is typical.

The Minister should come down to Lucan some morning.

He should come down to the port tunnel.

To make a number of points in correction of Deputy Rabbitte, who is unusually poorly informed on this issue, the reason for the demand management upgrade is that the council, on which the Labour Party has a majority, made a condition that a demand management flow study be done as part of the upgrade.

The upgrade was four years ago.

It was a condition recently of the Labour-led council to have a demand management process. That is the reason.

That is a complete red herring.

The Government wants to get rid of the present barrier plaza system and to replace it with an electronic system that will be far more efficient. More and more traffic is more efficiently using the M50, despite all its problems, all the time. Deputy Rabbitte asked what has been going on for the past nine years. I am sure he has travelled the road to see that the M50 has been going through its completion for the past few years, with the roads to Tallaght, in his constituency, to Leopardstown, the link to the Glen of the Downs and Baldoyle all under way. The tunnel on to the road has also been under way.

It would have been convenient if, when people were dealing with this 20 years ago, they could have foreseen that we would increase from a population of 3.4 million and would have the best boom this country has ever imagined under this Government, but people did not see that.

They rezoned all the land around the M50 for profit.

A million fewer people were working when we started the plans for this road; the population has increased by 1 million and will increase by a further million. Things change and we have been all the time upgrading, planning and moving ahead.

Rezoning.

Unfortunately when there is a contractual arrangement until 2020 we must negotiate ourselves out of it.

It was a crooked deal.

This is not a banana republic where we can tell NTR to move on.

A banana republic made the deal in the first place.

We are endeavouring and have started to put €1 billion into the upgrade, finish the tunnel this year, finish the Naas Road and find a new electronic way of letting traffic through quickly. If that is not good for the motorist, I do not know what is.