Tolls on the country’s national road network are set to increase from July 1, the Irish Department of Transport and Transport Infrastructure (TII) has confirmed, reports RTE.
This follows the completion of the government’s six-month postponement of toll increases on June 30 and the introduction of the regular regulated toll in line with the inflationary increase will come into effect on July 1.
TII released a statement today confirming that toll increases will be determined by the current rate of inflation (CPI) and cannot exceed the rate of inflation. It indicates that the CPI increased by 8.6% between August 2021 and August 2022.
A Department for Transport spokesperson confirmed that the deferred toll price will apply from July 1, citing TII statutory notices of the increases, reports RTE.
There are ten toll roads on the national road network – eight are operated under a public-private partnership (PPP) model and two are operated directly on behalf of TII, namely the M50 and the Dublin Port Tunnel.
Toll increases will increase to their maximum rate on the M50 and the eight PPP routes due to inflation, but there will be no increase on the Dublin Port Tunnel.
Tolls on the M50 are set to increase by 30p for cars without a licence, bringing the toll to €3.50, while for cars with a video account there will be an increase from €2.70 to €2.90.
Cars with the tag face a 20p increase to €2.30 and TII has pointed out that there has been no increase in the M50 car toll for vehicles registered with the tag for 10 years until the 1st July 2023.
On the M1, M7, M8, N6, N25 at Waterford and N18 Limerick Tunnel tolls will increase from €2 to €2.10, while on the M3 tolls will increase by 10 cents to €1.60.
With the M4, the price of the car increases by 20 cents to 3.20 euros.
Last November, the proposed increases and their timing linked to the pressure on the cost of living led to divisions within the government and the timing was criticized by the Taoiseach at the time, Micheál Martin, then Tanaiste, Leo Varadkar, while Transport Minister Eamon Ryan in an interview indicated that he agreed with the proposed increases, reports RTE.
The Department for Transport spokesperson said the cost of the six-month postponement would be around €12.5 million based on the toll revenue that would be lost by not applying the increase, plus the administrative costs 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”, reports RTE.
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