The Irish Times view on road toll increases

The announcement that road tolls are set to increase next January in line with the rapid increase in inflation seems to have taken many in Government by surprise. It should not have done given that Transport Infrastructure Ireland, which oversees the system, is a State body.

Plans for big increases, including a 9 per cent rise in tolls on Dublin’s M50, were bound to be controversial. In part this is more evidence of how inflation spreads throughout the economy. Higher costs of materials for road repairs, funded by tolls, and the general rising cost of operation are given as reasons for the rise. Where roads are owned by private operators, contracts, drawn up when nobody would have expected inflation to approach 10 per cent, are also in play.

For occasional users this is an inconvenience, but for regular personal and commercial users the rises are significant. And the timing could hardly be worse.

Given the cost-of-living crisis, there is a case to examine whether the increases in companies under direct State control can be lessened or delayed. Is it really necessary to impose the maximum increase? The contracts in the case of privately-owned roads appear to allow this – there may be lessons here for structuring future arrangements. But this does not stop the Government from putting pressure on generally profitable private operators.

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There is a need to keep this in context, too. It is the first rise in M50 tolls for a decade. The proposed increases, while high in percentage terms, are limited when measured in cash. It is regular users who are exposed, including commercial fleets and daily commuters.

And then there is the climate agenda. A key goal of policy is to get people out of their cars. This is going to involve higher charges for motorists across a range of areas in the years to come – from parking to polluting fuels and beyond. But this should be on a signalled and planned basis. Big hikes in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis are not a good idea