Varadkar ‘not happy’ with toll increases and wants them cut or delayed

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said he wants to see if it is possible for planned increases in motorway tolls to be reduced or deferred.

It was reported last week that Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) had confirmed toll increases in response to inflation.

The State-owned M50 will increase its tolls by just over 9 per cent while the public-private partnership (PPP) motorways have been allowed to bring in “maximum tolls” allowed under agreements with the State.

The new prices come into effect on January 1st.

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Both Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Mr Varadkar have raised concern about the timing of the increases and suggested there will be engagement with TII on the issue.

Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan who has been away in recent days at the Cop27 climate summit in Egypt is yet to outline his position on the increases.

Hildegarde Naughton, the junior transport minister, has said a solution has to be found to ensure commuters do not bear the brunt of increased tolls.

During an interview on RTÉ Radio 1’s This Week programme Mr Varadkar was asked if the Government will ask TII to reverse the decision.

He said it is something that has to be discussed with Mr Ryan who has been “very busy” at the climate talks.

Mr Varadkar said he understands that the Minister of Transport’s office was aware of the increases being planned by TII but the wider Government was not aware.

He said: “It’s a decision for Transport Infrastructure Ireland, which I suppose is why it didn’t come to Government.”

The Fine Gael leader said he is “not happy” with the “unwelcome” increases.

He said TII would argue that there has been no increase for nine years and the cost of road maintenance has gone up but he added: “I think it’s coming in a really bad time with petrol and diesel prices being really high.”

Mr Varadkar said he wants “to see if it’s possible to either reduce the increase or defer it for a period of time”.

But he said he needs to sit down with Mr Ryan and TII before options can be explored.

He added: “As I understand it what they’ve [TII] done is they’re imposing an increase in what is called the maximum toll.

“They’re not obliged to charge the maximum toll so there may be some room for flexibility.

“But we would have to find the money for road maintenance elsewhere.

“So we just have to look at that and work on that over the next couple of weeks before it kicks in January.”