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LAST UPDATE | 29 Nov 2022
WHILE GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCED that it would intervene to defer increases in toll charges on eight motorways for six months, TII Chief Executive Peter Walsh has said this evening that an “awful lot of discussions are yet to go on and I don’t want to pretend otherwise”.
Coalition leaders met last night and agreed that the increases will be delayed until 1 July, at a cost of €12.5 million.
However, appearing before Oireachtas Transport Committee, Walsh said “we are saying the cost of the deferral is yet to be determined”.
He explained that figures were provided to the Department of Transport that the toll increase would raise €12.5 million – but Walsh said this evening that costs associated with deferring the increase could be more.
“We don’t want to give the impression we can get this over the line for a certain number… we want to make sure there is an understanding of this,” he added.
Walsh said “I don’t want to tell the committee that we have this sorted”.
Tolls were set to rise from 1 January to their maximum rate due to an increase in inflation, which provoked anger from politicians as citizens grapple with the surging cost of living this winter.
Agreement needed
When asked by the committee chairperson Kieran O’Donnell whether there is agreement in principle, Walsh said the eight different toll operators must agree to deferral.
Cathal Masterson, TII Director of Operations said that he had been in contact with the operators today about the matter, stating they only heard about the decision of the deferral at 10am this morning.
He explained there are eight different contracts and if any one of those operators decide not to agree, they are entitled to levy the index-linked toll charge on 1 January.
When asked by O’Donnell when it can be agreed with all operators, Masterson said the operators agreed they would work at “breakneck speed” but that the board members of each operator will have to meet to sign off on the decision.
Walsh said he did not want to tell the committee that a decision will be forthcoming quickly, as operators might also need lenders approval also.
When O’Donnell asked if absolute clarity can be given to the public by the end of the week, Walsh said no.
Masterson said the dates of the board meetings are being set for mid-December. O’Donnell said that such a date was very close to Christmas, and asked if there was a way to expedite matters and bring forward board meetings.
“We are right up against Christmas, it is way too tight,” said O’Donnell.
The Government vowed to examine the looming rises after the issue was raised at Cabinet last week.
Explaining the increases, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) said legislation links toll costs to the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
TII Chief Executive defended the controversial increases to prices in nine toll stations.
In his opening statement, Walsh told the committee members that TII receives approximately €200 million every year from the 10 national toll stations in Ireland – eight of which are operated by way of public-private partnership (PPP). The other two, on the M50 and the Port Tunnel, are operated by TII.
Walsh said: “This revenue is used to fund the asset renewal, operation and maintenance of the national road network. The 5,300km of national road network is essential to the economic and social life of the country.
“The network has an asset value of €31 billion (as assessed in 2019). The asset renewal, operation and maintenance of the network requires approximately €600m annually. The Department of Transport provides the balancing €400m from general taxation.
“This represents 2% of asset value and is barely adequate to maintain asset value.”
Walsh told the committee that revenue from the eight PPP toll stations is used to repay loans raised to fund the construction of the roads, as well as funding the operation and maintenance of motorways and dual carriageways.
He also noted that the TII does not have the right to unilaterally change the way the toll rates for these eight PPP concessions are revised. “Any proposed change would have to be the subject of negotiation.
“Negotiations of this kind could take many months, if not years, to successfully conclude.”
Transport Committee chairperson Kieran O’Donnell and Fine Gael Senator Jerry Buttimer asked why a red flag didn’t go up that this might not be the right time to roll out the increase.
Masterson said “congestion is no one’s friend”, stating that one way to reduce the numbers of cars on the M50 is to increase the toll charge. O’Donnell said he found that policy difficult to accept, stating that many people use the M50 out of necessity, not as a luxury.
Masterson said it is a confusing concept to explain, but stating the “medicine may not taste very nice” but the pricing mechanism is seen as a solution to congestion.
Walsh said should road users continue believe that they should not bear the costs the maintenance of the M50 will have to come from general taxation.
Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue said the Government is striking the “appropriate balance” of recognising the cost pressures the public are under.
“I think it’s striking the right balance in terms of recognising the prospect, particularly the prospect over the next few months, where people’s energy levels are higher and dealing with the issue,” he added.
Prices can’t rise more than the rate of inflation and all nine roads will increase their tolls by the “maximum” level possible.
Figures show the CPI rose by 9.2% between October 2021 and October this year, up from an annual increase of 8.2% in the 12 months to September.
Walsh’s statement says: “In the event that a freezing of toll charges is agreed, the contractual entitlement to the index linking of toll charges would still exist. If inflation continues to rise, this will result in rebalancing of, and consequentially, larger increases to, toll charges in January 2024.”
“Any freezing of toll charges would also reduce the amount of money that TII receives under the revenue share mechanism of the PPP contracts.”
TII previously announced that they do not plan on changing tolls for the Port Tunnel but the M50′s tolls will rise by 20 or 30 cent depending on the vehicle category.
Tolls were multiplied by the 8.9% rate of inflation and then rounded to the nearest 10 cent.
A car on the M50 with a pre-registered tag will cost €2.30 from January, up from the current €2.10 charge.
The biggest change for drivers will be for those travelling the M50 in a car that hasn’t been registered, a current cost of €3.20 that will rise to €3.50.
Walsh will tell the committee that freezing M50 toll rates would lead to a reduction in revenue of approximately €13 million. “That reduction would have to be made up from general taxation as the costs of asset renewal, operation and maintenance of the national road network is subject to the cost increases caused by inflation.”
Additional reporting by Christina Finn and PA
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Disgraceful that gardai are expected to work in these conditions. The government have been lying to the public for years by telling them that the organisation is properly resourced. Now they’ve been found out
If I work in an office and am unhappy with my job I look for a new job. Being a Garda is only a job for life if they want it to be, nobody is stopping Gardaí from entering the jobs market to find new employment and a happier work environment………
It’s not so easy to move from a permanent and pensionable job out into the unknown.
There was a damning report in the Sindo today – an article about a report morelike ….
It wasn’t good reading and I only glanced at it …
It seems that a woman and her child were left out in as blizzard after their car was seized for no Road tax …
I didn’t read anymore in fairness !
I don’t think that is what the power of the Road Traffic Act is meant to deliver – bankers can be arrested by appointment but step on the Queen’s highway and the Gardaí are ordered to be very abrupt – a disjoint in Law there somewhere !
I agree Green Monkey, nothing stopping them from looking elsewhere. Or could it be difficult for most Gardai to do so as they have little or no post secondary school education???? Hmmmm. I respect our police force in general and they do a good job with their resources but we must look at the poor standards if education amongst them, it’s not acceptable in my opinion.
@ oisin I’d say most Gardai have forgotten more than u will ever learn young chap
Sincerely doubt it Mannix but would love to hope that is the case (thanks for the ‘young’ compliment btw. delighted to be called that again!)… Im guessing honesty about our poor level of education in general in Eire Inc is not liked as per usual by the masses… Let us roll on in ignorance!
Or, do the same work abroad!
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When I see stories like this it makes me think, if we’d had a responsible government in the boom years and had not blown all that property bubble revenue buying elections with extra 10ers on things like children s allowance, and cutting the tax base until it was dangerously narrow…if we’d had the brains and the foresight imagine we’d spent even half of that money on capital.finishing Transport 21, upgrading Garda stations like these (or just building new ones, the one in the pic does not even look salvageable)
But where did the money go instead? To give a middle class the illusion of wealth with a few extra quid in spending money…for just that week or that year…and now all that money is spent and gone and we’ve nothing to show for it except some decking or an SUV out in the commuter belt maybe. Now here we are ready to make all those same mistakes all over again with the demands for ps pay hikes and tax cuts starting all over again.
I was in a small garda station in tipp once doing some maintenance & they had no hot running water, no kitchen facilities for cooking & it was infested with rats & there was dampness literally going out of the walls through the paint. it should have been closed down.
It’s a sorry state of affairs when the rats are put off by being facilitated in such kips!!
I think it’s wrong to put the blame solely on the “middle class” I agree the point ur trying to make hits the nail on the head but they weren’t bank heads handing out millions in loans to property investors an heads of construction companies etc.. remember where ALL the money went to, don’t single out “middle class” people.. even at that I hate the terms of fitting into certain “classes”.. and at the end of the day the “middle class” really have the short straw now where repayments are concerned.. also even with the bubble ended now look at the likes of irish water an try tell me money isn’t been stupidly wasted in millions anymore an we’ve learned any type of lesson…
Awful…it can’t be legal to work in these conditions…
In fairness it’s not just gardai and garda stations that have these issues. A year or so ago I was shown the male changing room of a certain hospital, to describe it as small would be an understatement, it had over 100 shoebox type lockers but no toilet or hand washing facilities. There was a note on the wall from a manager stating in no uncertain terms that the male staff could use the public toilet in the Accident and Emergency Department of this hospital. I won’t say where it was but, it had only 1 or 2 toilets in the Accident and Emergency Department which is one of the busiest in the country. As the staff member who showed it to me pointed out this has to be used not just for changing purposes but also by staff members who had certain illness like diabetes etc. yet they couldn’t even wash their hands. If the public saw what went on behind the scenes they’d be disgusted. Needless to say, he was able to point out the managers offices that had been redecorated.
But if criminal bankers were arrested then there would be loads of money for more Garda training recruitment facilities etc.
Can’t have your cake and eat it …..in one sense !
Gardai are very vocal when it comes to them voicing their own grievences for all to hear ,yet when it comes to complaints by the judicary and the public about the corrupt goings on in the force ,we are met with a blue wall of silence
Jane, you’re like a broken record on here. Always spurning out the same shite. If you’d take the time to look around you in the real world that Gardai operate in you’d see the real work that they do. It’s not them that squash penalty points and move people around to shut them up when they make noise – that would be the Garda authorities and their political sponsors. FG, FF, Labour and rest are all the same – they pretend things will be different when they get into power, but then they just engage in the same politics and look after their own. Status quo. I’m sure you wouldn’t put up with the conditions in Bailieboro Garda Station or live under death threats like the Gardai in Carbury. I suspect you might be one of the so called “working class” – the ones that don’t work that is.
Very well commented there Jane Ryan just to show how bright that they are most stations in the country have a very large telephone mast on the same site and they have to work there a lot of the time and the amount of radiation that they give off is not good but i have not heard anyone of them complaining
Well said Jane. Unfortunately no one is allowed to voice an opinion on the Journal that isn’t one of the majority without being subject to sustained abuse from some people. It amazes me that people who hold free speech in such high regard resort to bullying to prevent anyone speaking who they disagree with. As for penalty points being quashed, not squashed, I don’t think we can blame that one on the politicians.
So what’s your point Michael Vines? You think Gardai have a choice in whether they have mobile phone masts in their stations?
So what’s your point John Michael – free speech you say? That the likes of Jane and you can post on here means that you have the ability to get your point across – idiotic that they may be and all. On the penalty points being quashed or squashed, you’ll find that people understand the use of both words relating to that topic. I find that language needs to simple on here for some.
IJiester, how many rank and file garda have stood up and said the quashing of penalty points is wrong? When MC cabe, & Wilson, stood up they were harassed and intimidated and MC Cabe continues to be bullied. The rank and file garda now belong to the corrupt billionaire and do his bidding and carry out brutal assaults on his behalf as for the conditions they have to work in they spend most of the time parked up at the garage eating donuts and drinking coffee unless of course they have to attend to installing water meters which in turn is forcing austerity on people but they couldn’t care less. Stand up for yourselves the same way the rest of us have to.
Same s*it different day.. change the record will ya
There’d be no duties for Gardai at “protests” Martin if the criminal and militant element wouldn’t insist on taking them over. Gardai have no more interest in paying water charges or seeing them install meters than other working people. It suits the likes of you to point the finger and roar about Denis O Brien etc etc. Its the job of the Gardai to maintain order on the streets and the vast majority of taxpayers know this, and expect it to be done. The chip on your shoulder against Gardai is easy to spot from the language you use – either that or drinking coffee is a problem to you too. I’m sure you’d have a whinge if they were inside in the stations too. They’re not perfect, but they’re coming under more and more pressure. They’re numbers are still dropping, despite the spin coming from Garda HQ. My local Garda couldn’t do enough for people and works on his own time for any and every event in the area – all you have to do is ask. It says more about you than them that you couldn’t acknowledge the work that they do every day.
The important thing to remember Jane is Guards have more important things to do than care what you think
@ijLester. Why do you find it necessary to be abusive to people. Is there a history of people ignoring your views that makes you angry? You are insulting people who you don’t even know and are basing your assumptions on nothing. You need to take a good look at yourself. I’m not sure the Gardai would want someone like you speaking for them. Especially when you think everyone else understands the improper use of English as being correct, like yourself. That’s silly.
The criminal element don’t make me laugh, was Fiona Healy a criminal? Was the woman who had the glass door smashed in on top of her sinister? What IW are doing is illegal and the garda are backing them up and so are you, were all the political policing arrests really necessary? And if I have a chip on my shoulder it’s the corrupt authorities in this country that put it there, but you carry on been brainwashed. Btw it’s illegal to charge for the same service multiple times If I done it I would be jailed.
Martin, you clearly don’t read posts that disagree with your point of view. IW isn’t illegal – mad, corrupt and immoral maybe but this article is about conditions and equipment of Gardai all over the country – but yourself and your fellow anti-everything folks want to turn everything back to IW and Denis O Brien rants. The Gardai have to enforce the laws of the land – mad, bad or stupid as they may be and face sanctions if they don’t. They can’t pick and choose which ones to ignore, or which orders to disobey. Everything isn’t black and white – the Gardai live in the grey parts and don’t have the basic facilities to do it safely. That’s what the article is about – water isn’t mentioned anywhere.
Jester, it’s the garda that have given me and many more thousands of people the opportunity to mention IW, they are rapidly losing respect and when IW and DOB is gone they won’t get that respect back. And yes IW is illegal for the reasons I pointed out earlier would you pay your gas bill multiple times? You have very selectively failed to mention MC Cabe or Wilson, or Fiona Healy or the lady who had the glass door smashed in on top of her you must think these points are not worth responding to.
I’m just adhering to the advice a long since retired Garda once gave me – Never argue with a fool, as passers by might not be able to tell you apart.
That’s the type of reply I’d expect from someone who knew they’d lost the argument you’re not called jester for no reason are you.
You missed the point… again. I don’t want to argue with you on every part of your morons manifesto. Thread is about Garda station conditions and equipment available to them. Everything doesn’t come back to IW protests. Clearly to woman who got stuck in the doorway wasn’t the cleverest to stick herself into that situation, unfortunate it was that she got hurt for it. No same person who saw that footage saw Gardai do anything unreasonable. I have a life to get back to, and work to go to tomorrow so I’ll leave you to carry on your unrelated rants to yourself.
@ijLester. Fools, morons, no one listening to you speaking the truth. I hope nobody disagrees with you in work tomorrow or they will be for it. Or are you just a big mouth when hiding behind your computer? If someone like you is defending the actions of the Gardai then that speaks volumes about their behaviour. Either tow the line or we will bully you into it. That’s pretty frightening behaviour from people who are supposed to protect the public.
Calm down, calm down! The same person trying to correct my use of English earlier? Toe the line is the expression, not “tow”. There’s no problem with disagreeing, that’s how democracy works. Try sticking to the point. The article was about Garda stations, conditions and equipment. I’m not the one who veered off into unrelated rants about IW or Denis O Brien. I must go back to real life now.
Sorry for the delay in answering ijlester yes they have a choice you can buy a radiation meter for around two hundred euro it is a very cheap way to check is your life in danger and if it is you just refuse to go into that station. They say that gardai are putting their lives in danger a lot of times when they go to work which i can well understand but they should not have to put their lives in danger every time that they go to work, There is no safe dose of radiation no matter how small it is. I am not allowed to drive a car with defects you are not obliged to work in a dangerous area if you dont want to the choice is yours, but if you do more fool you
You realise that McCabe has not as of yet actually been vindicated? The Guerin report as states was not an investigation into the allegations.
You also realise that McCabe was the Sergeant in charge of the station he accuses of being mismanaged right?
But your all correct, if your unhappy with the building you leave, viola. I guess no one here is in a union and asks their bosses for better conditions and wage increases either?
Please stop using the phrase “third world conditions” for anything that is substandard. Go to a third world country and see how they live and maybe then you might gain some perspective on things.
Ryan i think our problems come from the bail out.Wait u c ryan people will vote them back.I hope i am wrong change is need badly in this country.
People will not vote FF in again.
Theyl come out then and beat people off the street over the same issue. Austerity .They have it both ways . They should stand up for others standing up for others. It makes sense .
A reverse in drive out bathroom sounds good to me. They are spoiled.
Denis’s Black&Tans should ask their boss for a payrise for all the work they are doing for him.
I was arrested in Turkey last week whilst on an a business trip. For playing “nude supermarket sweep”. But that’s another story.
I can tell you all first hand . That the facilities were a disgrace. I requested use of the bathroom and was shown to a hole in the ground beside the kitchen. The kebab for the send off breakfast was decent. All in all . I wouldn’t mind another night in a Turkish tank. #futureEire.
Better than some Irish police stations and the hole in the floor is standard sanitary ware in Turkey and such places.
‘third world conditions’
“third world police force”
nah, cops in the 3rd world are more professional.
Ijlester ,,,, would you ever get a grip and take of those rose tinted glasses that you got free in the sunday independent last year ,the world is a different place since denis gave them out with every paper of his ,yourself and s select few on here seem to be still wearing them, as for your comment id say im a lot more well off than yourself , but hey i dont brag because it none of your &@cking business what i or anyone else works at on this forum
Jane, I’ve never bought an Irish Independent in my life and I wouldn’t p*ss on Denis O Brien if he was on fire – but that’s beside the point. You’re the one with tunnel vision, seeing only what you want to see, or what suits your politics. As to your rant about being better off, you probably are – but again that wasn’t the point, that obviously went over your head.
Ijlester ,,,, i dont only see what i want to see if that was the case, i would see a great country to live in and a fair one , unfortunately i see what is out there day in and day out that is put out there by every section of the media ,corruption is rife in this country from gardai to politicans to bankers etc , yet these parasites walk away scot free , now if the gardai got of their high horses and done something real about it ,maybe they would have the garda stations that they are looking for ,until they do something about bankers white collar crime and the denis o b of ireland they should do what the rest of us citizens have to do ,and thats shut up or put up
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No sympathy for the coppers
What have you got to hide?
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