Updated: Wednesday, 2nd September, 2009 5:56am

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Politicians absent from M3 toll hearing

Dear sir - Talk about 'shutting the door after the horse has bolted!' Where have Deputy Shane McEntee and Cllr Brian Fitzgerald been these last few years? Certainly not at the M3 Toll Oral Hearing in Navan on 17th January 2007, anyway!

To be fair, Deputy McEntee was there at the beginning of the hearing, but left shortly after it got under way. Cllr Fitzgerald did not attend, like so many of our public representatives, who were conspicuous by their absence (with the notable exception of Cllr Philip Cantwell and a few other members of Meath County Council). There was not a local TD in sight.

Maybe they knew something that those of us who took time off work to attend, did not. I was so infuriated by the total lack of democratic process at the time, that I contacted several TDs to ask why they had not attended and although the excuses varied, Dominic Hannigan was the most honest and explained to me that these 'hearings' are simply a process of going through the motions and that the NRA Board make the final decision anyway.

He was right! Neither Deputy McEntee nor Cllr Fitzgerald made any objections and those of us who did were ignored.

The NRA even refused to issue transcripts of the public meeting, forcing those who wanted them to apply under the FOI Act, a wait of several weeks.

Those of us who have watched in horror as the precious landscape around Tara has been mutilated, have pointed out from the beginning that there were going to be two tolls on this road. So why the big surprise now? Questions were asked at the hearing about the grossly inflated projected figures for the year 2024, estimated at 54,700 a day through the southern plaza, by a member of the public - and promptly ignored by the NRA. These are the figures which the toll operator will now use for the next 40 years to claim any deficit in revenue and they were able to set them with impunity.

If Deputy McEntee and Cllr Fitzgerald really are concerned about this issue, why did they not make their voices heard loud and clear at the oral hearing and since?

Surely these public representatives all have a duty of care to attend such important meetings and ensure that this kind of daylight robbery does not take place.

While the people of Meath have been slumbering, intoxified by the Celtic Tiger, our government have been selling and mutilating their most precious assets from under their noses. We are now left with a motorway that few can afford to use, but will have to pay for anyway.

Shouldn't we now be asking those responsible about why this was allowed to happen? Let's start with asking Minister Noel Dempsey. After all, he is a government minister and a Meath man who presided over the whole affair - and still continues to do so. (By the way, he wasn't at the hearing either!)

Yours,

Rosaleen Allen,

Knowth,

Slane.