Rise in toll costs ‘ill timed’

Increases in tolls on the M50 and other major roads have been slammed as “ill timed and unwelcome”.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) announced that tolls across the national road network are set to increase from the new year.

The state agency said that the increases were in line with inflation figures of 2pc for August 2024 to August 2025.

Tolls on the M50 will increase by 10cent across all categories of vehicles “except for unregistered motor cars without a tag or video account”.

“Heavy goods vehicles exceeding 10,000kg holding a video account will have 20 cent increase on M50,” they added.

Tolls on the Dublin Port Tunnel will see an increase of €1 for southbound traffic at AM peak (Monday to Friday, 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.), rising from €13 to €14.

TII said this increase is to “preserve capacity for HGVs as non-HGV traffic continued to increase in 2025 during peak periods”.

HGV’s and Buses are exempt from paying tolls at the Dublin Port Tunnel and other tolls at Dublin Port Tunnel remain unchanged for 2026.

Eight other roads in the National Road Network – operated as public-private partnerships (PPP) – will see bumps in their toll charges of 10c, including the M1, M3, M4, M7/M8, M8, N6, N25WF and N18-LT.

Sinn Féin TD for Dublin South West Sean Crowe said these increases will add “yet more costs to hard-pressed commuters who would not be sitting in M50 gridlock every day if they had any other choice”.

“They are being treated like the gift that keeps giving as far as the government are concerned,” he said.

He called the coming increases “ill-timed, unwelcome, and unfair”, particularly after such a “disastrous Budget for workers and families”.

“These toll operators can’t lose. They get paid by taxpayers if numbers are down, such as during Covid, and now with an increase despite years of record revenue.

“Commuters with no other choice but to use these routes are forced to pay on a daily basis and with no election imminent, the parties in government and the so-called independents who back them do not give a damn about the effects of this increase,” Deputy Crowe said.

“Once again, this government and their supporters have shown that they do not care about the ordinary workers and families who are just trying to get to work and make a living.”