06.04.10
Posted in European Union, News, Tolls, unesco at 7:30 am by Vincent
PRESS RELEASE- TARAWATCH
04 June 2010 ‘
Colm Tóibín Joins Condemnation of M3 Motorway
Leading Irish writers, Colm Tóibín, yesterday condemned the construction of the M3 motorway, through the Hill of Tara landscape and archaeological complex. He has joined the long list of celebrities and artists, including Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, Louis le Brocquy, Jim Fitzpatrick, Robert Ballagh, and the Chieftains, who have condemned the M3 motorway, along with arts group Aosdána. Speaking from Kerry where he is Chairman of the Listowel Writer’s Week Mr. Tóibín said:
“The desecration of the landscape around Tara is shameful, short-sighted and beyond belief. In a time when Ireland needs places which have a sacred aura and a special beauty more than ever, it is sad to see those who have misruled our country ganging up on our heritage.’
His words echo those of Seamus Heaney, who told BBC in March 2008: “If ever there was a place that deserved to be preserved in the name of the dead generations from pre-historic times up to historic times up to completely recently – it was Tara.” He called the M3 a “ruthless desecration”, and said: “I think it literally desecrates an area – I mean the word means to de-sacralise and for centuries the Tara landscape and the Tara sites have been regarded as part of the sacred ground.”
While the M3 motorway is opening today, the controversy will continue for years to come:
- The European Commission is currently taking a case against Ireland, in the European Court of Justice, for breach of the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive, due to the decision of Dick Roche to demolish the Lismullin national monument, in Tara.
- Tara is being nominated to UNESCO to be a World Heritage Site, this July. Professor George Eogan, Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at UCD has said it is likely that UNESCO will not be pleased that a motorway has been just opened in the middle of the very site they are being asked to protect.
- Tara was placed on the List of 100 Most Endangered Sites by the World Monuments Fund (WMF) in 2006, and other international organisations, such as the Smithsonian Institution, the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA), Sacred Sites International, and the World Archaeological Congress (WAC).
- The Heritage Council is piloting the Tara Skryne Landscape Conservation Area, which covers a large area around Tara, and will place planning restrictions on both sides of the motorway. which are being challenged by local Fianna Fail councillors. Public consultation ends Wed 16 June.
- Finally, a human rights complaint is being prepared for the UN, which will detail the the litany of human rights abuses that have facilitated the construction of the M3.
Matt Schwoebel head of the 2048 Project at University of Berkeley law school, California, who was detained by Immigration officials at Dublin Airport and sent back to the US last November, said yesterday: “The human right to heritage sites of particular historical and religious significance is recognized in international law.
“These special places are inextricably connected to how people define themselves as communities and families. “The response by the government and police forces to the concerns of people raised during the protests are also of particular concern, and should be rectified accordingly.” The complaint will be presented to the UN and UNESCO this summer.
Vincent Salafia of TaraWatch said: “We have been completely vindicated in our campaign against the route of this road. The majority of Irish people, including most of our leading artists, as well as the EU and the major international archaeological bodies, have condemned it.
“The same reckless disregard for ethics, rights and regulation that brought down the economy, was employed to bulldoze this road through.
“The real kicker is yet to come, when traffic levels will show that the taxpayer will start paying millions of euros every year to the toll company, because of traffic fails to meet the traffic guarantee which was secretly written into the M3 contract by the NRA.
ENDS Contact: Vincent Salafia 085-192-7032 / Laura Grealish 087-972-8603
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06.01.10
Posted in News, Tolls, Transport at 12:59 am by Vincent
Group critical of M3 traffic use
The Irish Times - Tuesday, June 1, 2010
A group which opposed the construction of the M3 road has said the taxpayer is facing a bill of €1.3 million per annum because insufficient traffic will use the new motorway. The 61 kilometre M3 officially opens on Friday but Tara Watch spokesman Vincent Salafia said revenue from two tolls on the road scheme will not meet income targets. Tara Watch says the NRA through the taxpayer expects to pay Eurolink a minimum of €1.3 million in the first year due to a predicted 3,250 vehicle a day shortfall.
PRESS RELEASE – TARAWATCH
31 May 2010
NRA Expects to Pay Millions in Shadow Tolls to M3 Toll Company from Opening Day
The National Roads Authority (NRA) expects the M3 motorway to lose money, from the very first day of opening, 4 June. Taxpayers will spend millions in ’shadow tolls’ or direct payments to the Public Private Partner (PPP), Eurolink (SIAC & Ferrovial) due to a confidential ‘˜minimum traffic guarantee’ in the 45 year contract.
According to the NRA’s own figures the M3 will, “on opening”, have traffic volume of “approximately 22,000 vehicles daily”, which is 3,500 vehicles below the NRA’s threshold for shadow tolls of 25,250. Fred Barry, Chief Executive Officer of the NRA, revealed that the threshold for shadow tolling is 25,250 vehicles a day at a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport on“ 18 November 2009, saying:
“The level of traffic guarantee set out in the PPP contract for the initial year of operation is a combined total for the two plazas of 25,250 vehicles per day. If the traffic levels are 25,000 and the debt level thresholds are contravened, the concessionaire would receive an additional payment of approximately €100,000. If the traffic levels are 35,000 no additional payment arises.”
This means that the NRA expects to pay Eurolink a minimum of €1.3 mil, in the first year of operation, due to the predicted 3,250 vehicle a day shortfall, adding up to approximately €60 mil over the life of the contract. This could rise significantly if traffic levels do not reach 22,000. TaraWatch is predicting that traffic levels will be 10,000 – 15,000, meaning a total cost of approximately €180-240 mil, over the 45 yr life of the contract, based on a number of factors:
1. Current traffic volumes on the existing N3, which will remain open and free, were between approximately 14,000 and 16,000 last year, according to the NRA traffic counter statistics.
2. HGVs will avoid M3 tolls, by using the existing road, as was indicated by the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) in a statement on Wed, 26 May.
3. The M3 will have low cross-border through traffic, as is ends in Virgina, Co. Cavan.
4. Meath has been the hardest hit county in terms of job losses, due to the recession.
Vincent Salafia of TaraWatch said:
“Our campaign has been completely vindicated. Not only is the European Commission taking legal action against Ireland, which could result in massive fines for illegally demolishing national monuments at the Hill of Tara, but the road is an economic black hole for the taxpayer.
“The Government knew the M3 was economically non-viable, which is why they got special permission from the European Commission for shadow tolling, without informing the public. This is actually triple-taxation, when you add it on top of road tolls and vehicle tax, for a road that completely unnecessary, since it is only 5 miles from the proposed M2. The NRA has conceded that it is not a matter of ‘if’ the M3 will lose money; it is a question of ‘how much?’.
ENDS
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09.16.09
Posted in News, Tolls, Transport at 7:25 pm by Vincent
An aerial view of the M3 near Clonee, Co Meath. Moving north towards Kells, heavy machinery, diggers and cranes continue to work on long stretches on what appear to be the basic outlines of junctions and interchanges. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
Contentious M3 is 90% complete, says NRA
The Irish Times – Wednesday, September 16, 2009
THE CONTROVERSIAL M3 motorway in Co Meath, which has been the subject of several years of protests, is now almost 90 per cent complete, the National Roads Authority (NRA) has said. At almost 60km of main motorway and a further 40km of link roads and interchanges, the it is one of the longest motorways under construction in Europe. The M3 is not scheduled to open until July 2010. Work could still finish ahead of this scheduled date, but not before mid-spring next year, the NRA said. Beginning at Clonee, north of the Dublin-Meath border, it runs to Kells where it switches to a motorway-grade dual carriageway for the last 10km to the Cavan border. It will have two toll booths, charging €1.40 for cars. Dunshaughlin, Navan and Kells are bypassed along the route.
Controversially, the route runs just over 2km from the Hill of Tara, and adjacent to the Lismullin national monument and the hill fort of Rath Lugh. Protesters have occupied these latter two sites, blocking the road’s construction at various times in recent years, most memorably in March last year when conservationist Lisa Feeney, known as “Squeak” shut herself inside a chamber at the bottom of a 33-foot tunnel at Rath Lugh for 60 hours. No protesters are currently blocking or picketing any part of the motorway, and Vincent Salafia of Tarawatch said that such action is unlikely to recur. “The frontline part of the campaign is pretty much over. There are people still protesting in the area, but not on the front line of the road. At this stage any protest on the road would be a largely symbolic gesture, but that doesn’t mean the campaign is over.”
Recent changes to the criminal trespass laws had made such protests more difficult, Mr Salafia said, but he said Tarawatch was continuing to campaign against the road and hoped it might still be moved, even after its construction. Moving the road would be a possibility particularly if the Hill of Tara received Unesco World Heritage designation, Mr Salafia said. Tarawatch was also continuing to bring complaints against the NRA to EU bodies in relation to the destruction of ancient archaeology and heritage. Mr Salafia has criticised the cost to the taxpayer of the motorway. He said this will amount to €727.4 million over the life of the toll contract with Eurolink, which ends in 2052. However, NRA spokesman Seán O’Neill said Mr Salafia’s claims were a distortion of the facts. The road would cost about €720 million if Eurolink had not been involved and the cost was borne entirely by the State. “In fact only €250 million is being paid up front; the rest of the cost is being borne by the contractor . . . Distorting the figures doesn’t benefit the public, what benefits the public is the construction of a new, safe, value for money motorway.”
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09.14.09
Posted in News, Tolls, Transport at 7:31 pm by Vincent
Taxpayers face multi-billion euro motorway bill
Irish Independent – Saturday September 12 2009 – By Michael Brennan and Aine Kerr
TAXPAYERS are facing a multi-billion euro bill to fund the State’s new motorway network. The Comptroller and Auditor General’s report showed that the tolled M3 Clonee to Kells motorway, which is due to open next year, will cost taxpayers €727.4m in total over the next 42 years. The upgrade of the M50 ring road in Dublin from a two-lane to three-lane motorway by the ICON consortium will cost €1bn up to 2042. But while the State is paying private contractors for building and maintaining the roads in annual instalments, drivers will also have to pay billions of euro in tolls to use the motorways.
The Comptroller’s report said these public private partnership (PPP) contracts were signed for periods ranging from 30 to 45 years. However, the National Roads Authority (NRA) will share in some of the toll revenue if traffic exceeds certain targets. It earned €500,000 in toll revenue from the Kilcock/Kinnegad section of the Dublin-Galway motorway last year. The Comptroller’s report said the NRA believed it would earn €1.7bn in tolls from the motorways built under PPP contracts. The NRA also estimates it will earn a further €1bn in tolls by 2020 from the West Link toll bridge on the M50. But the report detailed the costs to the State of its buyout of the West Link toll bridge, which is now barrier free.
Responsibility
It now has to pay €50m per year to National Toll Roads (NTR) from August 2008 to March 2020 and assume responsibility for VAT of the order of €140m. The overall cost will be €600m. NTR originally invested £6m in the West Link toll bridge in 1987 — about €14m in today’s money. While there was provision for the reduction of tolls to zero in the agreements, subject to compensation of NTR for lost revenue, there was no provision for outright termination. “The absence of a termination clause hampered the State in its negotiations,” the report said. Meanwhile, the Comptroller and Auditor General John Buckley also found that the State was unlikely to require any further carbon credits to meet its carbon emissions targets under the Kyoto Protocol by 2012. The drop in the level of economic activity has led to a similar drop in carbon dioxide emissions. Although the State is still contracted to buy 8.3 million Kyoto units, it will be able to carry forward any excess credits to the post-2012 period.
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08.19.09
Posted in Tolls, Transport at 1:18 am by Vincent
Baron Wince, the M3 and the lords of incompetence
Sunday Tribune, 15 August 2009
Opinion – By David Kenny
Tenner for the first person who guesses what ‘Carbon Wine’, ‘Brace In Now!’ and ‘Bare Cow Inn’ have in common. My travelling companions didn’t make the connection. One threatened to connect his fist with my gob if I didn’t shut up, though. On Tuesday we headed to Tullamore for a lads’ night out with a friend who has swapped the Liffey for Offaly (he’s a ‘Liffo’). I spent the journey shouting out stupid anagrams of people’s names to irritate the other passengers. I can be really, really, really annoying when I’m bored. Brian Cowen’s name is stuffed with good anagrams, like the ones above, but I discovered one that describes him perfectly. It’s ‘Baron Wince’. You know the way you wince at your bills these days? That’s down to Baron Wince – Ireland’s Lord of Pain. We headed to the Baron’s local, the Brewery Tap, because I wanted to ask him what he knows about bi-location – being in two places at once. Noel Dempsey got me wondering about this last week as he defended the latest news from Tara. The Baron wasn’t about, so my question had to wait. (We’ll return to it later.)
The news from Tara is that we will have to compensate the operators of the M3 if the number of cars using it falls below a target agreed by the state. So what’s that target? Don’t ask the National Roads Authority. It would only say last week that it was “competitive”. Don’t ask Dempsey either. Newstalk’s Eamon Keane asked him if the public will ever be told. Not if it’s commercially sensitive, he replied, adding “what we WILL know is if the target is NOT reached”. So there you have it. How many cars make the M3 viable? Answer: mind your own business. Even after all the crookedness Fianna Fáil has displayed towards Tara, this latest revelation stopped me in my tracks. What next? Are they planning to sell the rights to Tara’s name, like The Point did to 02? Will we see ‘Welcome to The Hill of Eurolink’ as we approach Tara? It wouldn’t surprise me.
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08.13.09
Posted in News, Tolls at 2:52 pm by Vincent
Taxpayer will have to foot bill for M3 toll shortfall
Irish Indpendent- Monday August 10 2009
By Michael Brennan Political Correspondent
TAXPAYERS will have to compensate the operators of the controversial M3 motorway if the number of vehicles using it falls below target. It is understood this is the first time such a guaranteed minimum toll income has been agreed.
There will be downward pressure on the numbers using the M3, which opens early next year, because drivers could face €11.20-a- day in tolls and there will also be a new rail service to Navan. The Dunboyne to Clonsilla leg of the rail link to Dublin opens next year, with the full line coming on stream in 2015. The ‘minimum traffic level’ clause for the M3 was included in the contract for the €650m motorway through Co Meath. It means the State will have to pay the toll operators, Eurolink, compensation if traffic flows (predicted at up to 60,000 drivers per day) fail to meet the agreed minimum target. But the National Roads Authority (NRA) has not revealed what this target is.
Labour transport spokesman Tommy Broughan warned the State might have to compensate Eurolink if the planned rail service persuaded drivers to abandon their cars. “It seems to be running counter to what would be generally accepted public transport policy. From every point of view, it seems mad,” he said. There is no such ‘minimum traffic’ agreement for another toll road operated by the same company — the Kinnegad-Kilcock section of the Dublin-Galway route. The National Roads Authority said the minimum traffic target was “competitive” and was based on annual rather than weekly or monthly traffic levels. But it said it was unable to reveal it because the expert in that field was on holidays. The re-opening of the Navan rail line is due to take place in two phases. The first is the 7.5km line from the planned M3 Interchange at Pace through to Clonsilla station, which is due to open next year.
Defended
It will include three new stations — Hansfield, Dunboyne and Pace. There will be 15-minute peak hour frequency commuter services into Docklands Station in Dublin city centre. Phase two of the project will extend the rail line to Navan. It is due to be completed by 2015.
The NRA defended its decision to include a minimum traffic guarantee. A spokesman said they needed to attract as many bidders as possible to the project. A spokeswoman for Transport Minister Noel Dempsey played down the risk of the State having to pay the toll operators compensation. “The NRA is confident that, based on traffic volumes, the minimum traffic level will be realised,” she said.
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03.19.09
Posted in Archaeology, Climate Change, News, Tolls, Transport at 11:42 am by Vincent
The Dublin Transportation Office (DTO) has been holding a public consultation on developing a new Strategic Transport Plan for the greater Dublin area, which includes Meath and Tara. The ‘2030 Vision’ consultation closes at midnight on Sunday 22nd of March. Please take ten minutes and fill out the consultation form, and demand a solution to the Tara / M3 problem.
“2030 Vision is the name given to the Strategic Transport Plan being developed by the Dublin Transportation Office for the Greater Dublin Area. It will be at the heart of all transport planning in the region from 2010 until 2030. Everyone has an important role in helping to design it. We wish to consult you in the development of the new transport strategy.” – DTO
Please include the following points in your submission:
- Demand that the DTO turn the Hill of Tara / M3 motorway problem into an opportunity to improve both heritage and transport
- Note that many alternatives are avilaible, such as re-routing the M3 to serve the population of Trim, instead of wrecking the heritage at Tara, where there are no people.
- Point out that the consultation is fatally flawed, and doomed to failure due to Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey’s refusal to subject Transport 21 and the National Development Plan (NDP) to Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), as recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
- Note that options for Strategic Transport Plan have been straight-jacketed by the structures put in place under the NDP, and that a sustainable plan can only be properly achieved if Transport 21 is also reviewed, and put through a similar consultation process and full SEA .
- Note that Transport 21 and the NDP have never been environmentally proofed for climate change, and were drafted under much different economic assumptions, such as 6% growth and low fuel costs.
- Demand that all national spending on Transport 21 under the NDP is frozen, and SEA and cost-benefit analysis of the entire plan and every individual project is carried out to form a new national transport strategy, to fit with the Dublin strategy.
- Demand that the DTO participate in the public consultation currently being held by the Department of the Environment on the proposed UNESCO Hill of Tara World Heritage Site.
- Remind the DTO that UNESCO or the EU may still demand that the M3 is re-routed, after it is completed, and it is better to try and solve the problem now, rather than later, in order to save money.
- Note that the M3 route already goes 3.5 m off course to the east, between Navan and Dunshaughlin. It would serve Trim and save Tara if it went 3.5 km off course to the west. It would also save money because the M3 would not need to cross the N3 in two places, and there would be no need for interchanges.
- Note that Tara is on the World Monuments Fund List of 100 Most Endangered Sites, and that Smithsonian Magazine listed Tara as one of ten must-see sites before they disappear.
- Note that the tolling contract for the M3 is 45 years, which will determine transport policy until 2055 unless action is taken now.
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10.13.08
Posted in Corruption Watch, News, Tolls, Transport at 2:19 pm by Vincent
TaraWatch asks auditor general to probe €16bn NRA overspend
Irish examiner – Monday, October 13, 2008 – By Eoin English
ACTIVISTS will accuse the State’s roads building body today of a staggering €16 billion overspend — more than the spiralling national debt. TaraWatch, the group fighting the building of the M3 motorway at the Hill of Tara, will also call for a halt on future road projects. It said it will lodge its complaint against the National Roads Authority (NRA) with the State’s spending watchdog, the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), accusing it of rampant overspending since 2000.
“The C&AG has primary responsibility for ensuring value for money in public spending,” TaraWatch spokesman Vincent Salafia said. “It should not allow one penny to be spent until there has been cost-benefit analysis and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) on every single road plan. “It is illegal and disgraceful for the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) to now negotiate more cost-plus, rather than fixed-price contracts, and a continuation of business as usual. “The NRA didn’t even have an accountant in their office until 2004. They have gotten away with murder, as have the construction companies that hauled off truckloads of taxpayers’ money.” He said TaraWatch wants the C&AG to freeze all public spending on NRA projects under the National Development Plan, until a cost-benefit analysis has been carried out.
The C&AG has expressed concerns about the spending controls on roads projects. In 2002 the NRA was summoned before the Public Accounts Committee to explain a massive €6.6bn overrun. By 2004, the overrun had gone up to €10bn. TaraWatch said an engineers report it commissioned, and submitted to the Department of Finance on Friday, shows how the M3 motorway will cost the taxpayer an extra €1.8bn, and will be responsible for €320 million in emissions penalties. The NRA was unavailable for comment yesterday.
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09.02.08
Posted in News, Tolls, Transport at 10:52 am by Vincent
M3 motorway partners see 12pc drop in share price
Irish Independent – Tuesday September 02 2008
THE Spanish construction giant Ferrovial Group , a partner in the construction of the controversial M3 motorway, saw its shares fall 12pc yesterday , after it reported a 25pc drop in earnings for the first half of 2008. While the group’s cash flow remained healthy at more than €1bn over the period, it said earnings before interest and tax fell 25pc to €691m.
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01.18.07
Posted in News, Protests, Tolls at 8:43 am by Vincent
NRA Tolling Documentation
NRA denies that hearing into plan to toll M3 is a ‘farce’
Elaine Keogh
The Irish Times
Thursday, January 18, 2007
The National Roads Authority (NRA) yesterday told the hearing into objections to its proposal to toll the M3 motorway that it expected to sign a contract for the public-private partnership (PPP) in the coming weeks.
The NRA denied this made the hearing a “farce” or a “camouflage” .
It also said the charges proposed for the two toll plazas along the 47km motorway “have not been set at levels that would maximise revenue”.
The road will cost €680 million and link Clonee on the Dublin/Meath border to Kells.
A car will pay a toll of €1.30, which is the “lowest planned car toll on the national roads network,” said Gerry Murphy, the head of public-private partnerships and tolling with the NRA.
Meath County Council objected to the tolling, and Cllr John Farrelly said he believed 70 per cent of the 16,000 people who commuted daily to Dublin from Kells would face an annual bill of up to €2,112 if they used the motorway. They would, therefore, continue to use the N3.
He asked the inspector chairing the hearing, Dom Hegarty, if the holding of the hearing was a “camouflage” as he believed the decision had been made to sign the contract for the PPP in the next three weeks.
Mr Murphy said it would be signed within the next two months, possibly one month.
He said it was a flexible contract which gave the NRA the option of deciding not to toll the scheme or to remove the tolls later.
A number of protesters, including members of Tara Watch, an umbrella group for organisations concerned about the possible impact of the M3 on the Hill of Tara, were in the audience and made statements.
Tara Watch said the hearing was a “farce” and should give people the right to reject it. However it appeared the contract was going to be signed anyway.
During the hearing one woman heckled the inspector and the NRA team, alleging they had not done their job properly.
lettersed@irish-times.ie
Village magazine: Tara tolls hearing to begin
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