Why are tolls going up?
Toll prices are linked to inflation. Each year, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) checks the cost-of-living figure for the 12 months to August and adjusts tolls in line with it. This year that figure was 3.6 per cent, and the TII board has signed off on the new rates.
There are ten toll roads on the national network. TII runs two of them - the M50 and the Dublin Port Tunnel. Private companies run the other eight under public-private partnership deals.
How much more will I pay on the M50?
How much extra you pay depends on whether you are registered. Car drivers with an M50 tag or video account will pay 10c more per trip. Drivers who are not registered will pay 20c more.
Vans and other goods vehicles up to 2,000kg will pay 10c more if they have a tag or are unregistered, and 20c more on a video account. Heavier lorries will pay 20c or 30c more.
Are the other motorway tolls going up too?
Yes, at all but one location. Car drivers will pay 10c more at every privately run toll plaza except the M3 between Clonee and Kells, where prices for cars and motorbikes stay the same. Heavier lorries will pay 20c more, and the heaviest, those over 3,500kg with four axles, will pay 30c more. On the M3, those lorries face a 10c rise.
What is changing at the Dublin Port Tunnel?
Only one price is going up. Driving southbound towards the city between 6am and 10am, Monday to Friday, will cost €15, up from €14. Every other tunnel toll stays the same. The evening northbound peak, from 4pm to 7pm, stays at €12, and off-peak trips in either direction stay at €3.50. Lorries continue to travel through for free.
TII says the tunnel is meant to keep traffic moving for lorries going to and from Dublin Port. It says the higher morning toll is needed because southbound traffic at that time keeps growing, and it wants to protect space in the tunnel for heavy goods vehicles.
Where does my toll money go?
Tolls collected by TII on the M50 and Port Tunnel are added to the funding it gets from the government. TII says this money mainly goes on maintaining and renewing the national road network, and that the two tolls make a large contribution to that budget.
On the eight privately run roads, the toll companies also use the money to repay the loans they took out to build the motorways, as well as to run and maintain them.
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