WHO will be the first victim? Someone will soon go to jail for not paying a €3 toll fee on the M50. Come back, National Toll Roads, all is forgiven. The smuggest AGM in Irish history will be held on Thursday. Tom Roche and Jim Barry of National Toll Roads will do a lap of …
Category Archive
for: ‘Westlink Bridge and M50’
M50 Fees And Fines
Many of you continue to sit in long lines trying to crawl along the M50 with thousands of other commuters. My cage rattling has obviously had some effect as they are about to remove the toll plaza that causes such frustration but they seem to have missed the point completely. They aren’t about to ease …
Money, Money, Money, Must Be Funny, In The NRA’s World
DO you still doubt the hidden talents of all those sluggish state agencies? You do? Go straight to the National Roads Authority (NRA) for reassurance. Next, invoke the name Maurice O’Connell, the doyen of Irish economic folklore. Last week a report ordered by the National Roads Authority (NRA) was leaked.The topic was the latest penal …
Government To Maintain Motorist’s Misery On M50
It seems that from next August, tolls on the M50′s Westlink will be raised from €1.90 to €3 for occasional users – a whopping 60% increase! I had thought that the battle had been won and that the State had bought out NTR for €600 million, €50 million per year until 2020. I thought that …
Trinity Seanad Election 2007: Watch My Interview With Pat Kenny On The Late Late Show!
Watch my Late Late Show interview here, where I revealed my plans to undercut all the auctioneers with my new licence and where I offered NTR €10,000 to open up the Westlink toll bridge. They later told me to stuff my ten grand!
40 Interruptions, 17 Interjections, and 1 Irritated Minister
Last Wednesday, my good friend Martin Cullen was charged with steering the Roads Bill through the Seanad. His speech was heard without interruption. However, when I stood up to speak on the Bill, the Minister seemed a touch irritable. What followed were some unprecedented scenes as the Minister proceeded to interupt me no less than …
So What has the Cabinet’s Clown Prince Really Bought for us with our €600m?
Back in 1987 Minister for Transport Martin Cullen’s predecessor, Padraig Flynn, sold a small – but pivotal – piece of land to National Toll Roads for €14m (in today’s terms). Last Tuesday, Martin bought it back for €600m which we will pay in annual instalments of €50m. The final figure will be nearer to a …
“You can Stuff your Ten Grand!”
You might remember that last month, I appeared on the Late Late Show to make what I thought was a tempting offer to National Toll Roads (watch here). As a Senator, I get an allowance for political campaigns. I used this allowance to send toll boss Jim Barry a cheque for €10,000, asking him to …
NTR: You know the ‘T’ Stands for Tolls!
Last week, National Toll Roads released their interim results. The statement was full of the language of “Bioverda, biofuels, Greenstar, Airtricity, ethanol and global warming.” Buried at the bottom, on page four, was a brief reference to the infamous West-Link toll bridge. A footnote. The toll road company is brushing the toll bridge out of …
Late Late Show Interview
Watch my Late Late Show interview here, where I revealed my plans to undercut all the auctioneers with my new licence, my €10,000 offer to NTR to open up the Westlink, and some views on the upcoming election.