Evening Herald. 08/06/2007  Kevin Doyle

Dublin City Council is to consider making a recommendation to have the Port Tunnel opened to taxis and buses for free.

A taxi or bus with under 25 passengers has to pay the full €6 or €12 rate to use the tunnel as an access point to the city, but calls have now been made to allow public service vehicles take advantage of the less congested city centre access point.

BASIC

A motion on the agenda of next Monday evening's council meeting states:  "This council resolves to allow all taxis, buses and all other properly licensed public transport vehicles to use the Port Tunnel free of charge, in particular to facilitate travelling to and from the airport."

Cllr. Oisin Quinn, who has proposed the idea, says that it is a basic matter of helping people get to the Airport with the minimum hassle.

"There is a big problem getting in and out of the city, and we have this fabulous piece of infrastructure which cost us €1bn" he said.

"So long as a taxi has a fare, it should be allowed to use the tunnel for free, and I don't think it would add to any traffic problems in the tunnel," he told the Evening Herald.

The ultimate decision on whether taxis will be given free access to the tunnel will lie with the National Roads Authority.

"Given that it is in the city council's plan to try to avoid traffic in the centre of the city, this should make perfect sense," Cllr Quinn said.

BANNED

"It would only be helping people who are electing to use public transport anyway, without having a negative impact."

It is estimated that more than 7,000 heavy goods vehicles use the tunnel every day now that they are banned from the city centre without a permit.

A spokesperson for the NRA said yesterday that whatever the outcome of Monday night's council debate they would "look forward to hearing from them".

The Irish Road Haulage Association was unavailable for comment.