Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Leo Varadkar TD has announced that tolls will not be applied to the Jack Lynch Tunnel.
The President of Cork Chamber, John Mullins stated, “over the last 12 months, the Chamber has embarked on a vigorous political lobby against the proposed introduction of tolls on the Jack Lynch Tunnel (JLT), presenting the decision makers with key evidence based data on the impact which a toll on the JLT would impose on business costs and competitiveness”.
He continued: “A comprehensive integrated transport survey of the Chamber’s 1000 members, employing 95,000 in the Cork region showed that 68,000 drivers would be penalized every day and congestion chaos would ensue throughout Cork City and its suburbs on a daily basis. The cost of the additional congestion and delay was estimated by the Chamber to be in the order of up to 4 times the revenues generated by any JLT toll”.
Alma Murnane, Policy & Research Manager at the Cork Chamber of Commerce, discussed with PAI in September 2011 the findings of this survey and outlined that the imposition of a toll on the Jack Lynch Tunnel would pose a serious threat to the Cork region’s economic development and would be “deeply counterproductive”. To view this article click here.