Tolling our roads - A tax too far

NO political party has gone to the polls suggesting it might introduce tolls on our roads, so if this is still a democracy of sorts, the reality is that no party has a mandate to introduce them. Yet the air is thick with suggestions that the country’s roads and tunnels will be extensively tolled.

This is unacceptable on so many levels. Already a huge proportion of transport costs are made up of taxes; VAT, VRT, something around 70% on fuel, road tax and other levies on insurance and parking costs. Not to mention wear and tear caused by poor secondary roads.

In recent years, predicting the gap between a tender and the final price for roadworks became almost a national sport. If tolls are needed to sustain this kind of mismanagement then they must be opposed.