NRA in bid to cut electronic tag costs

THE NATIONAL Roads Authority (NRA) is negotiating with electronic tag providers in a bid to reduce the fee it pays them. The NRA pays the five providers a fee to ensure that the tags work on every tolled road in the State.

As part of a move last year to ensure that drivers need only one tag, the NRA agreed to cover the costs associated with interoperability under a roaming arrangement estimated to cost the authority over €500,000 per year.

The NRA reached separate agreement with each of the toll operators, depending on a number of factors including their share of the market. With the first year of the agreement due to run out in July and the number of tag holders set to increase sharply once the M50 moves to barrier-free tolling in August, the NRA is seeking to renegotiate this agreement when it expires after July 1st.

However, The Irish Times has learned that at least one of the larger tag providers has warned the NRA that its "commercial viability will be undermined should the roaming fee be reduced unduly". A spokesman for the NRA declined to comment on the matter.

From August the toll barriers on the M50 will be removed, and replaced with an electronic system that will record the driver's electronic tag or vehicle number plate. The fee to cross the M50 West-Link toll bridge for drivers who have a tag will remain at €2. Motorists without a tag, who pre-register a vehicle and provide card details, will face a fee of €2.50.

Drivers who do not pre-register will have to pay €3 per trip. The tag providers have differing administration fees and minimum top-up amounts.

The Irish Times has also learned that an independent demand management study on the M50 by Arup consultants recommended that there was "little or no benefit" to introducing demand management measures before the upgrade was complete. It is understood that the study will be updated in three years time to provide recommendations for the Department post-2010.