NTR buyout could cost State €600m

TAXPAYERS will be landed with a bill of €600 million to buy-out M50 toll operators - even though the Government believes the company may be in breach of its contract.

The Dáil Public Accounts Committee was yesterday told by National Road Authority officials that delays at the pay plaza mean levy collectors NTR could be falling below obligations.

TDs expressed anger when told legal remedies could not be pursued against NTR over the matter as the contract was “so vague as to be unenforceable”.

NTR Chairman Jim Barry strongly denied that toll booths were to blame for the notorious level of tailbacks on the motorway.

He estimated a State buy-out would cost €600m, but said the proposed Government change-over to a free-flowing electronic tagging system of tolls would not lessen the gridlock.

Mr Barry confirmed ministers would still have to negotiate with his company when it comes to upgrading the road. The company could be in line for even more pay-outs from the Government to allow the roadway under its control to be expanded in the future.

Sean Fleming TD described the stretch of road controlled by NTR, which is ultimately owned by the State, as a “ransom strip” in the toll operator’s hands.

“Shame on the State, whoever negotiated that,” he said.

Frustrated motorists on the M50 were warned to expect even more travel misery when 2,500 HGVs hit the road from late spring when the Port Tunnel is due to open. Mr Barry said National Road Authority officials had not contacted him to discuss how to cope with the extra traffic flow.

Socialist TD Joe Higgins asked Mr Barry: “Are you not embarrassed by the level of money you are taking from ordinary hard working motorists? It’s an incredible gold mine for a private corporation.”

Mr Higgins then described NTR as the “greatest tormentor” in the lives of ordinary people trying to use the road.

Mr Barry insisted his company “had nothing to be ashamed of” and had faced ruin in the early 1990’s when traffic levels fell below expectation.

Comptroller and Auditor General John Purcell said “the user is the loser” in the current M50 set-up.

Committee chairman Michael Noonan TD said similar roads on the continent did not have levies.

He said the M50 was now “Dublin’s high street” and not an orbital bypass route.

Mr Barry insisted the cause of tailbacks on the M50 was due to other bottlenecks on the motorway and offered to take the TDs present up in a helicopter to prove the point to them.

He said 25,000 vehicles where using each lane per day which was far more than the 18,000 per day on London’s orbital M25.