The National Roads Authority (NRA) is to propose tolling a number of existing and proposed motorways in an attempt to raise an additional €2 billion to help fund a revised €10 billion national roads programme.
Proposals for the new tolls are to be sent shortly to the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan.
The NRA confirmed yesterday that it has been in detailed discussions with the National Development Finance Agency on raising money from the private sector by selling the rights to raise tolls on the Newbridge bypass in Co Kildare, the M50, the proposed Ashbourne (Co Meath) to M50 road and the Lee (Jack Lynch) Tunnel in Cork.
The inclusion of the Jack Lynch Tunnel represents a particular difficulty for Mr Brennan, who last December expressed opposition to what he said were NRA and NDFA plans to include the tunnel toll in a wide range of new charges designed to bring in an additional €300 million a year.
However, the reduced number of new tolls has been made possible by the prospect of a process of "securitisation". For example, the NRA has been convinced by the NDFA that it could raise up to €500 million now by selling on the rights to raise tolls at Dublin's Westlink bridges from 2020, when they are due to revert to State ownership.
The NRA points out that the State is currently in receipt of about €10 million a year from its share of tolls at the bridges. Under a renegotiated arrangement, concluded on the building of the second bridge, the revenue, which is based on volume flows, could see the State netting up to 80 per cent of the toll on vehicles.
The authority believes that there would be a big interest in similar arrangements on busy roads in the greater Dublin area. The inclusion of a toll at Newbridge would include all traffic on the N7 Dublin to Limerick road as well as traffic on the M8 Dublin to Cork road and on the proposed M9 Dublin to Waterford road.
The money raised, together with the Government's promised €7 billion "envelope" over the next five years, will go towards completing the roads programme under the National Development Plan 2000 to 2006, financing additional projects such as the third lane on congested parts of the M50, rebuilding key interchanges at the Red Cow and N4 and completing the recently-announced "two plus one" upgrades of single-carriageway roads.
The NRA plan will also set out the options available on fast-tracking the motorways between Dublin the Cork and Dublin and Galway. Essentially, the plan offers the Minister the options of "absolute priority" for fast-tracking the motorways to Cork and Galway, completing both by 2008; giving these roads "priority", which would complete them "substantially" by 2008 or a year later; or proceeding evenly with the motorway programme over the next five to seven years.
The NRA points out that securitisation is a separate method of raising finance from the tolls already planned under public/private partnerships (PPPs). Current contracts with the private sector for projects such as the Kinnegad to Kilcock motorway cannot be changed, but the NRA believes that its existing network has the potential to deliver additional funding for further expansion.
A spokesman for the authority said it believed that local fund-raising - for example, a toll on the Jack Lynch Tunnel in Cork to fund the building of the Kinsale Road Interchange in the city - would be acceptable to the public.
Mr Michael Egan confirmed that the NRA was in detailed talks with the NDFA on securitisation finance. He told The Irish Times that, ultimately, the level of additional funding raised by the authority was a political decision and one for the Minister. The plan put forward by the NRA would give the Minister options on ways to proceed. "We had promised the Minister we would do this by April, and it looks like we will keep to that," he added.
