Tolling FAQ's
There are ten toll roads on the National Road Network. Eight are operated under a toll concession “Public Private Partnership” (PPP) model and two are operated directly on behalf of Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), namely M50 and Dublin Tunnel. (Note Ringsend Toll Bridge (formally known as EastLink) is a regional road and is owned and managed by Dublin City Council.)
Transport Infrastructure Ireland is responsible for the delivery and maintenance of approximately 5,500 kilometres of roadway. This network carries almost 50% of all road traffic and over 90% of all freight traffic nationally and as such is critical to the effective functioning of our economy and society. Approximately 450 km of this road network was constructed and is currently operated and maintained by Public Private Partnership companies, the majority of which comprises toll concessions.
A key element of the Government’s 2000-2006 National Development Plan was to improve Ireland’s physical infrastructure, particularly the national road network. In this plan the Government identified the use of PPP contracts to contribute to financing about a quarter of the planned national roads programme estimated at c.€5.5bn at the time. Except for the M50 Upgrade, the initial tranche of PPP projects were structured as toll road projects
Basically a number of PPP companies bid competitively to fund and construct a new motorway (and related infrastructure) in return for the rights to the tolling income over a long-term (e.g.30 to 45 year) contract. This means that the PPP companies assume construction risk and demand risk associated with traffic volumes. They also carry the risk of increased costs incurred in operating and maintaining the road over the period of the contract (i.e. due to inflation). Allowing PPP companies the rights to collect tolling income over the term of the contract basically results in lower costs for the Government for these road projects as they are being partly funded by road users.
The toll revenue collected by the PPP Companies on the PPP toll roads is used to pay back the loans borrowed by the PPP companies to construct the road in the first place as well as to fund the operations, maintenance and renewals activities. The tolls collected on behalf of TII for the M50 and Dublin Tunnel are used to fund TII’s ‘Protection and Renewal activity”. Overall, the revenues collected on the M50 and Dublin Tunnel will contribute about 45% of the funds to TII’s Protection and Renewal budget for 2023.
Dublin Tunnel was constructed to facilitate direct access for trucks to Dublin Port from the Motorway network and remove trucks from the city centre. The tolling arrangements serve an important demand management function by charging higher toll rates for cars and light goods vehicles at peak times which helps to “ensure that the non-HGV traffic would not interfere with the ability of the Dublin Port Tunnel to meet its primary objective of providing a high-quality access route to Dublin Port”.
In 2023, the expected tolling income of approximately €208 million will make up about 45% of the overall Protection & Renewal budget of c.€462 million. The primary source of income is the M50 Toll, which TII expect will contribute about 82% of the income with Dublin Tunnel and revenue share from PPPs contributing about 11% and 7% respectively. For more details on the value of tolls collected please refer to TII’s Annual Report and Financial Statements which identifies income generated from the M50 Toll and Dublin Tunnel. (www.tii.ie)
Please visit www.tii.ie or www.eToll.ie for further detail on the individual PPP toll roads and a link to their websites. PPP toll companies are required under law to file their annual accounts each year with the Companies Registration Office (CRO) in Ireland.
The level of tolls charged by Toll Roads on the National Road Network is regulated through an inflation adjustment mechanism as set out in the Toll Bye-Laws. The Bye Laws outline the calculation method for toll rates and contain provisions to prevent toll operators from charging toll rates which are higher than a specific level which is defined as a ‘maximum toll’ for each vehicle class. Further information on Toll Bye Laws is on the TII website and can be found here.
Tolls only increase when there is an increase in the underlying rate of inflation. So, for example, toll charges increased in 2023 and will increase in 2024 but between 2014 and 2021, which was a period of low inflation in Ireland, most tolls for passenger cars did not increase year by year and there were decreases in toll rates in 2010 and 2011.