NRA claims M1 toll operator is overcharging motorists

MOTORISTS USING a stretch of the MI motorway are being over-charged by a total of €26,000 a week since January 1st and will be overcharged by €1.39 million this year unless the tolls are reduced, the National Roads Authority has claimed before the Commercial Court.

Some 11 million vehicles used the MI toll road last year, the court heard.

The NRA claims motorists using other motorway routes will also be overcharged if its interpretation of the relevant bylaws is correct. Those routes are the N8 Rathcormac/Fermoy bypass, the N25 Waterford bypass and the M4 Kinnegad-Enfield-Kilcock motorway.

Among its various claims, the NRA rejects arguments the relevant bylaws provide solely for upwards-only revision of toll charges. It claims the tolls being imposed are over the maximum tolls chargeable under the appropriate formula in the bylaws.

Lawyers for the M1 toll operator yesterday queried the consistency of the NRA’s conduct in relation to the relevant bylaws.

Maurice Collins SC, for Celtic Roads Group (Dundalk) Ltd, said the NRA was itself effectively the operator of the M50, and appeared not to have reduced tolls there.

Declan McGrath, for the NRA, said there was no inconsistency between how tolls were applied to the M50 and the NRA’s interpretation of what should apply in relation to the M1 and other motorways. The issue for the court to determine was the proper construction of the relevant bylaws.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly noted, if the NRA was correct, it was accepted there was no means whereby overcharged motorists would be compensated. In those circumstances, the action should be heard urgently. He fixed it for hearing on February 22nd.

The NRA’s proceedings are against Celtic Roads Group (Dundalk) Ltd over whether that company has breached the relevant bylaws in its toll charges for this year on the Gormanstown to Monasterboice stretch of the M1.

The NRA claims the company will receive €1.39 million this year for charging tolls in excess of what the NRA contends should be the maximum tolls.

It claims toll charges should have been reduced from January 1st, and, for example, the toll per car should be €1.80, not €1.90 as of now.

Mr Collins, for the company, said his side believed there were issues about the NRA’s own operation of the M50 and about what it had accepted concerning other routes.

He would be seeking documents from the NRA to that effect.

He agreed the case was essentially about the proper construction of the relevant bylaws, but said there may also be issues about the NRA’s previous stance on these matters and whether the M50 bylaws have been operated in the same way.

Counsel said it seemed tolls on the M50 had not been reduced.