[article] ICTU says nay to SUVs and the Westlink Toll

mike65

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has called on the government to provide funding in the coming budget to buy back the Westlink Toll bridge so it can be operated without tolling.

Speaking at the launch of the Congress pre-budget submission General Secretary David Begg said that such a move would eliminate delays on a crucial national artery.

Begg said the bridge is due to revert to the state in around a decade's time anyway, adding that it was remarkable in a modern economy that such an important urban bypass should be tolled.

Congress is also proposing a €5000 levy on sports utility vehicles over 2.4 litres for environmental purposes - and described such a move as a tax on vanity....

*** A spokesperson for NTR, which owns Westlink, said the traffic congestion problem is not driven by the Westlink but by the inadequcay of interchanges on the m50. If you removed the toll plazas tomorrow the issue would be the same. as part of the NRA's plan to upgrade the M50 the development of the toll plaza will be addressed.

Mike.

dowlingm

Vanity tax is stupid as the SUV sellers will find ways around the tax.

Road tax linked to gCO2/km similar to UK taxation is a better idea.

Hagar

Surely 4WD owners ( No Americanisation, Mike ) have already paid their fair share of taxation through massive VRT charges, high road tax, and petrol taxes. Do anybody else feel a fourth tax, whatever it's called, is just pushing it a bit?

narommy

I think the suggestion of acquiring the WestLink by CPO is silly and childish. Do these people just suggest ideas to grab headlines???

If it happened it would be the end of PPP in Ireland. Nobody would be interested in developing any project if they thought it would be acquired at a whim.

They should consider making an offer to buy it at a reasonale value. If that offer was not accepted then the Gardai should order them to open it up a peak times if there was a delay.

This would soon end the repetitive mantra that NTR use.... It's not the toll plaza, it's the M50 only having 2 lanes. What bull!!!

They'd increase lanes at the plaza immediately and we would have a free flow.

It seems ridiculous that there seems to be no penalty clause if there are long queues.

Anybody know hol long before it will be handed back to the government?

Hagar

IIRC the handover date was 1997 but someone pulled a stroke somewhere and we have been taking it up the arse ever since.
By contrast in France two lane toll roads open out into toll plaza with 12 to 16 booths each side. No delays there.

sliabh

narommy wrote:

It seems ridiculous that there seems to be no penalty clause if there are long queues.

It would be normal practice in contracts to include service levels, and to link them to penalty clauses. But as it's the government writing the contracts, and they don't usually have to worry about service levels, this is omitted.

In some areas the relevent agencies are begining to cop on to this. That's why the NRA has been bringing in contracts ahead of schedule and under budget. They are written to give the contractor an incentive to delivery early.

Any organisation be it a private sector company, a government body or an individual will always suit themselves. So it is beholden on the person writing the contracts to make sure they exactly specify what they want.

narommy

Speaking of incentives, I've heard that the reason that many road projects are coming in on time or way before is that there are substantial insurance savings for every day ahead of schedule? Would that be correct?

I assumed that the Westlink wold be handed over 30 yrs from the opening of the first one. How would 1997 fit with that.

Also what's IIRC?

For people who are supposed to be accountable for public monies the public servants do seem to get ridden.

16 booths sounds like a good plan. What are the chances?? :mad:

sliabh

narommy wrote:

Also what's IIRC?

If I Recall Correctly

narommy

Thanks, that will be useful to me cos i usually recall incorrectly so i'll qualify everything with iirc from now on

Corben Dallas

Those Muppets in the ICTU :rolleyes:

it must have been a quiet day so they release these 'headline grabbers' and the media duly obliged.

What a bunch of jokers, € 5000 grand tax on SUV's (yeah 4 x 4's to the un americanised) This is classic the workers unite stuff! :O LOL NEWFLASH! the social/communist revoltution is dead and buried comrades!!!!!!!!!

U can imagine the meeting
"Jaysus Joe those feckin Yuppies are really getting on my wick with their fecking Arse higher than mine in their bleedin Jeeps, wat are they calling dem these days? SUV's is it? right i nominate a motion to tax those Yuppis scum.........."

Leaving aside the CPO(**laughs**) , the East and Westlink tolls should have come into public ownership at this stage, they could be generating revenue for the Govn and they could be opened free to teh public to ease Traffic Congestion at peak times.