West Link Toll Bridge

DonJose

Its official, our Government is to buy out a bridge that originally cost €14m to build and they will pay €600m for it. What was going through their stupid heads when they gave NTR the contract to build the bridge. I mean its not like NTR purchased the land and built the M50, the taxpayer did. €600,000,000 would go a long way improving our hospitals and schools. Corrupt ba$tards. Unbelievable.

ballooba

Someone should record that interview with Seamus Brennan from Six One and put it up on YouTube for future generations. What an absolute 'tard.

Can't remember exactly what he said but it was along the lines of:
This is not money the exchequer is forking out, NTR would have gotten this money anyway under their contract. :rolleyes:

Who signed the contract Seamus?

jay-me

That would make ye sick.

Tipsy Mac

How nice of them to sort out the mess they caused by signing the deal in the first place. Apparently the original deal cost NTR £6 million.

In any remotely moral country the government would have given them 2 options:
A) Take 50million and clear off
or
Refuse it and we will build a new bridge parallel to your own and your business will go under.

eddhorse

Agreed, and did i hear in the news that they could have waited till 2020 or paid them off which they are going to?
So the pay off will be €50m a year till then?

ballooba

eddhorse wrote:

Agreed, and did i hear in the news that they could have waited till 2020 or paid them off which they are going to?
So the pay off will be €50m a year till then?

Sounds about right. If they waited until 2020 they wouldn't have had to pay them anything.

This was the best bit:

Seamus Brennan wrote:

It is not money from the exchequer, it is not money from all the taxpayers, NTR would have got this anyway, they had a binding contract in place to do it.

:rolleyes:

Saruman

Who was in power when the contract was signed anyway? I believe it was 1985.
Anyway would you rather have the barrier there till 2020? Better for the barrier to be lifted next year and the governemnt to start making money back on the toll and when the M50 upgrade (and its interchanges) is complete it should hopefully be a toll people will not mind paying for because its freeflowing and quick.

They had to do something!

DonJose

You have to ask yourself why should we have to pay tolls in the first place, the motorways are paid for with taxpayers money, plus we pay motor tax, never mind the amount of tax we pay on petrol and the hige ripoff called VRT. Those ba$tards at NTR own Irish Broadband and Airtricity, I'd never give them another penny.

seamus

DonJose wrote:

You have to ask yourself why should we have to pay tolls in the first place, the motorways are paid for with taxpayers money, plus we pay motor tax, never mind the amount of tax we pay on petrol and the hige ripoff called VRT. Those ba$tards at NTR own Irish Broadband and Airtricity, I'd never give them another penny.

It's not a totally stupid thing.

Back when the bridge was built, traffic volumes were nothing compared to today. Estimates at the time (no doubt drawn up by NTR) had shown that it would be a long long time before they made their money back, and then they'd have a few years milking the profits, before handing it back to the Government. The NTR were charged with building the bridge and then maintaining it until 2020. So they would have at least *some* operating costs. The Government and NTR were afraid that the M50 wouldn't be used all that much. So the NTR were taking a big *risk*.

Of course, now they're making millions every year, maintenance of the bridge isn't even remotely expensive in comparison, and the Government put them in what was effectively a legal limbo, where they were God of the bridge and could charge whatever the hell they wanted.

I have to admire the cheekiness of NTR though. "Can we have that free €600m, tax-free too?". If they had gotten away with that one, *then* maybe someone's balls would have to be hung out to dry.

ballooba

Saruman wrote:

Who was in power when the contract was signed anyway? I believe it was 1985.

1987 actually. Fianna Fail was in government.

Pee Flynn and George Redmond signed the deal.

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=35&si=1317482&issue_id=11929

Seth Brundle

DonJose wrote:

What was going through their stupid heads when they gave NTR the contract to build the bridge. I mean its not like NTR purchased the land and built the M50, the taxpayer did.

NTR built and own(ed) the section between the N3 and N4 including the bridge. This was done because the state simply couldn't afford it.
The government are buying this for one reason really - they are hoping that it will make them look good come election time.

ballooba wrote:

Can't remember exactly what he said but it was along the lines of:
This is not money the exchequer is forking out, NTR would have gotten this money anyway under their contract. :rolleyes:

Although the govt will fork out €50m per annum they will make it back (plus more) through tolling the (entire) road.

ballooba wrote:

Who signed the contract Seamus?

Mr. Flynn and Mr. Redmond!

DonJose wrote:

You have to ask yourself why should we have to pay tolls in the first place, the motorways are paid for with taxpayers money, plus we pay motor tax, never mind the amount of tax we pay on petrol and the hige ripoff called VRT. Those ba$tards at NTR own Irish Broadband and Airtricity, I'd never give them another penny.

Whilst I agree about NTR, they are after all a private company with shareholders wanting more value on their assets.
Incidentally connections between some of these 'ba$tards' can be made to the Doyles hotel family, roadstone, cuising de France, etc. - will you boycott these?
As we Irish are about as good at protesting as we are at electing honest politicians, nothing gets challenged as it would in most other EU states.

DonJose

kbannon wrote:

Incidentally connections between some of these 'ba$tards' can be made to the Doyles hotel family, roadstone, cuising de France, etc. - will you boycott these?

F*cking right I will

unkel

ballooba wrote:

1987 actually. Fianna Fail was in government.

Pee Flynn and George Redmond signed the deal.

Yup. Charlie Haughey was Taoiseach, Bertie was signing blank cheques and Mr. Big was apparently involved too. Happy days :rolleyes:

old boy

so now anyone in this mistake for a republic are going to help pay for this thing even tho they may never use it, an election gimmic gone wrong, jeeze f.f. must have been desperate to recuit that imbicle thats looking for the credit

Drax

kbannon wrote:

The government are buying this for one reason really - they are hoping that it will make them look good come election time.

Interesting. I really hope this backfires for them. I for one are more inclined not to vote for them after this.

Bluetonic

Tipsy Mac wrote:

In any remotely moral country the government would have given them 2 options:
A) Take 50million and clear off
or
Refuse it and we will build a new bridge parallel to your own and your business will go under.

A) Why would and should NTR accept this? If you were a share holder in NTR would you be happy accepting this, I think not. We are not living in communist China.

Contract stipulated no alternative bridge could be built.

Seth Brundle

old boy wrote:

so now anyone in this mistake for a republic are going to help pay for this thing even tho they may never use it, an election gimmic gone wrong, jeeze f.f. must have been desperate to recuit that imbicle thats looking for the credit

Even if you don't use it you are 'benefitting' from it. Its highly likely that most services you use, the food you eat, etc. is affected by the M50!

Smiley101

All thanks to our crooked politicans. I wonder how much they got in their brown envelopes.......and the thing is people will still vote the same parties back in the morning.
The west link toll bridge has put the people behind NTR, in the top ten rich list in Ireland.