Tolls on the country’s national road network are to increase from July 1st.
The Department of Transport and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) confirmed the move following the conclusion of the Government’s six month deferment of toll increases on June 30th and the standard regulated toll in line with the inflationary increase will take effect the following day.
TII today released a statement confirming the toll increases are driven by the current rate of inflation (CPI) and cannot go above inflation stating that the CPI increased by 8.6 per cent between August 2021 and August 2022.
[ How the new M50 toll hikes will workOpens in new window ]
A spokesman for the Dept of Transport confirmed that the deferred toll price will apply from July 1st pointing to the TII statutory notices on the increases.
There are ten tollways on the national road network – eight are operated under a “public-private partnership” (PPP) model and two are operated directly on behalf of TII, which are the M50 and Dublin Tunnel.
The toll increases will go up to their maximum rate due to inflation on the M50 and the eight PPP routes but there will be no increase on the Dublin Tunnel.
Tolls on the M50 are to increase by 30c for cars without tags bringing the toll paid to €3.50 while cars with video accounts will see an increase from €2.70 to €2.90.
Cars with tags face a 20c increase to €2.30 and TII pointed out that there has been no increase on motorcar tolls on the M50 for registered vehicles with tags for 10 years to July 1st 2023. On the M1, M7, M8, N6, N25 at Waterford and N18 Limerick Tunnel, tolls for cars will increase from €2 to €2.10 while on the M3, car tolls will rise 10c to €1.60. On the M4 there will be an increase of 20c for cars to €3.20.
[ Tolls on Irish roads to rise by up to 60c per journey from JanuaryOpens in new window ]
[ Increase in Irish road tolls deferred for six months until July 1stOpens in new window ]
Last November the proposed increases and their timing in the context of cost of living pressures caused division in Government and the timing was criticised by then Taoiseach Micheál Martin and then Tánaiste Leo Varadkar while Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan indicated in interview that he accepted the proposed increases.
The Dept of Transport spokesman said that the cost of the six month deferral estimated that this would be of the order of €12.5 million, based on the toll income which would be foregone by not applying the increase, along with administration charges and associated legal costs.
The TII statement said that “toll revenue is used for purposes including motorway maintenance, toll collection and operations, and for the maintenance of the wider national road network”.
