In his column in yesterday’s Sunday Business Post, David McWilliams convincingly restates why the toll bridge on the M50 is perhaps the crowning glory of “rip-off Ireland.” Many people may not be aware of it, but the toll operator built only the bridge while the rest of the gridlocked M50 was paid for out of public funds. This, as McWilliams has pointed out, has lead to the bizarre situation in which”…not only does the state pay for all the road up to the 500-metre stretch of bridge, but it is complicit in the rip-off because it actually ushers the motorist into the clutches of the toll.There is no alternative route once you get on the M50.You are automatically a sucker for the toll bridge. Therefore, this is a ‘no risk – all return’ venture for the owners.”Due to legal obligations, if the state were to buy out National Toll Road’s highwayman-like operations, the compensation bill could reach at least �300 million–so that the cost of the “poxy” M50 bridge (McWilliams’s adjective!) would not fall that short of the magnificent and recently opened Millau Viaduct (which came in at around �395 million). The comparison is beyond embarrassing. Yet one has little expectation that the State will tackle this fleecing of its citizens. For example, when it was announced that the M50 toll would rise from �1.50 to �1.80–an inflation-busting 20% hike–I decided to lodge a complaint with the Department of Transport. It’s a futile gesture, I know, but I was interested in seeing how some mandarin on Kildare Street could excuse such exploitation. I stuck to the facts, merely pointing out the disproportionate scale of the increase and manfully desisting from any gibe or speculation about Minister Martin Cullen being slightly distracted at the moment. I sent the message off the [email protected] over two weeks ago. Guess what I got back in return? Nothing. Nada. Zip. At least when you press those pedestrian buttons at traffic lights a WAIT sign is illuminated. But the organs of state cannot even be bothered to install an e-mail handling application to give at least the illusion of responsiveness. But perhaps they know their citizens–if fact, make that subjects–too well. Because, for all our talk about the wild Irish and our anti-authoritarian streak, we show a consistent willingness to be treated like dirt. We grumble, but do little more. The fact there aren’t riots while people queue for an hour to pay at the M50 toll booths is a daily testimony to that.