Road tolls to increase for second time in under a year from January

Michael Bolton

Irish motorists are set to be hit with another toll increase, with costs climbing by at least 20 cent in January.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) approved these increases in tolls for 2024, in October 2023.

The TII said it was basing the increase on the annual rate of inflation that was recorded at the end of August – which it put at 6.3 per cent.

There are ten toll roads on the national network – eight of which are operated under a “public-private partnership” (PPP) model and two are operated directly on behalf of TII – the M50 and Dublin Tunnel.

Dubin Tunnel toll charges for passenger cars are returning to 2009 levels for peak periods from €10 to €12 to preserve capacity for heavy goods vehicles accessing Dublin Port.

For M50 and PPP toll roads most car tolls are increasing by 20 cent per journey and heavy good vehicles tolls by 30 to 50 cent per journey.

In 2023, the expected tolling income of approximately €208 million will make up about 45 per cent of the overall Protection & Renewal budget for the national roads programme.

TII said they will use the expected increase in income in 2024 to continue to fund the Protection and Renewal activities where significant increases in costs are being experienced due to inflation.