Charging drivers to use major roads 'won't be happening', says Tánaiste
Micheál Martin said that he wanted to see a model where people "don't have to use the car all the time".
Tánaiste Micheál Martin has poured cold water on the idea of motorists being hit with punitive costs for using the nation's major roads.
Reports on Monday outlined the potential cost of the move, which has been under consideration by Transport Infrastructure Ireland since last year and was first revealed in January. Motorists would face charges of €163 to travel from Cork to Dublin under the scheme.
Project BRUCE (Better Road User Charging Evaluation), which is being led by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), has four options on the table as part of its work for the future of the country’s road network. The fourth option being considered is pricing the entire road network. A presentation to the TII board last year said it would be looking closely at successful existing schemes for tolling and congestion charging in Singapore, Hong Kong, Norway, and London.
However, speaking at the Curragh Camp in Kildare on Monday, Micheál Martin rejected the idea.
"That won't be happening," the Tánaiste said. "First of all, there's no proposal before government (on this issue)," he added.
Mr Martin said that the Government was seeking to "bring people along with us" in the quest to lower carbon emissions and said that there was little room for "unnecessarily scaremongering or alarming people". He said that the Project BRUCE research is "an ideas paper" and not a concrete proposal. He said the paper will form part of the overall lessons on traffic and road usage.
"The most important aspect of the public transport network at the moment is not yet where it should be for people to ditch the car, particularly if you're living outside of the major cities, and even within cities like Cork and Galway, we need to build capacity in light rail and rapid transport, which is happening. It's going to take time before that gets to planning and so on. So it's a very major investment going in now."
Mr Martin said that he wanted to see a model where people "don't have to use the car all the time", but said that any proposals to change how that is taxed would come from the Government. He said that the revenue which is projected to be lost due to people taking up cleaner vehicles would be regained in other ways.
"The other point I would make is that revenue is a matter for the Government and the Minister for Finance.
"I remember when we were taking measures against tobacco, there were lots of naysayers coming forward saying 'oh you're going to lose a lot of revenue on tobacco'. Well, we lost it and guess what? We put on a bit extra to stop people smoking.
"And so my view is not one where you penalise those people for using their cars. You have to bring people with you—people have to get from Maynooth to the city centre."
Mr Martin added that people had "gone along" with moves like the pedestrianisation of Cork city centre and this showed a willingness to change behaviours.
