Tolls issue raised five years ago

Dear sir - I read with consternation the amount of column space you devoted in your edition dated 15th August to the €580 million in total revenue that the toll operator Eurolink will earn over the 30 year contract for the M3. The quote from Deputy Shane McEntee is nothing new. Others and I flagged, during the local election campaign of 2004, that commuters from Kells would be paying two tolls on each journey to Dublin. Both Deputy McEntee and Councillor Brian Fitzgerald who is also quoted in your article, knew about this some time ago and should have resisted it fiercely. They should also have had the foresight to realise that the taxpayer would be left to fund any deficit in toll revenue to the toll operator. However at the planning stage both of them ignored the financial burden that would fall on the taxpayer and issued instead numerous unsubstantiated statements about the number of new jobs the M3 would bring to Meath. I remember attending a public meeting in Navan about the M3 where the former Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen, stated that as Dublin grows it is becoming more and more imperative to serve the bordering counties with an extensive motorway system. In other words, the M3 motorway will serve the Dublin economy and the thousands of Meath commuters who work there. It is becoming more apparent that this M3 motorway will eventually become a white elephant. Increasing fuel costs caused by depleting world oil stocks will result in many commuters leaving their cars at home. The toll costs will result in commuters continuing to use the existing N3. Your article quotes Deputy Thomas Byrne talking out of both sides of his mouth on this - "It will take thousands of cars off the N3 every day" and "the N3 will still be open for those who do not wish to pay a toll". Then there is also the reopening of the Navan rail line promised for 2015. This will rightly encourage traffic off the roads but it seems totally paradoxical that elected public representatives in Meath can now huff and puff about toll charges which they knew about five years ago but fail to recognise the long term commercial and economic viability of the M3 project insofar as it will be adversely affected by a changing commuter preference for rail travel and lower commuting costs. Yours, Brian Flanagan, Kilcarn Court, Navan.