Judgment reserved in tolls case

A High Court judge has reserved his decision on proceedings by the National Roads Authority over a toll operator’s alleged overcharging of motorists using a stretch of the M1 motorway.

The case has implications for users of other motorways.

The NRA had applied late last month to have the proceedings fast-tracked before the Commercial Court and Mr Justice Peter Kelly agreed to do so after noting there was no mechanism for compensation of motorists if the NRA was correct in its claims of overcharging. The case concluded today before Mr Justice Kelly who reserved judgment.

The NRA claims toll operator Celtic Roads Group (Dundalk) Ltd, CRGD, is overcharging motorists by some €26,000 weekly since January 1st last and will overcharge them by some €1.39 million this year unless the tolls are reduced.

CGRD, which entered into a contract with the NRA in 2004 to operate tolls, is alleged to have breached the relevant bylaws in the toll charges for 2011 on the Gormanstown to Monasterboice stretch of the M1 motorway.

Motorists using other motorway routes will also be over-charged if its interpretation of the relevant bylaws is correct, the NRA alleges. Those routes are the N8 Rathcormac-Fermoy bypass; the N25 Waterford by-pass and the M4 Kinnegad-Enfield-Kilcock motorway.

CRGD has denied the claims and, among various pleas, says it had a legitimate expectation based on statements by the NRA itself and by the former minister for transport Noel Dempsey that tolls would only increase.

The case centres on the proper construction of the relevant bylaws. The authority claims the bylaws do not make any express reference to an upward only toll system and provide a mechanism to allow for a decrease but CRGD disputes those claims.

The court was told the Consumer Price Index – which is used to calculate the maximum toll allowed – fell in 2009 for the first time in 50 years. The bylaws allow for a “cushion” of a year, so tolls did not fall, but, after the CPI rose just slightly in 2010, the NRA claims the toll should have decreased from January 1st last.