Coalition leaders will hold talks today about planned increases to road tolls amid a backlash

Coalition leaders will hold talks on Monday evening about planned increases to road tolls amid a backlash over the issue, the Taoiseach has said.

Speaking at the launch of a public housing scheme being developed by the Land Development Agency in Shankill, Co Dublin today, Micheál Martin said the issue would be discussed at the three leaders’ pre-cabinet meeting tonight.

“Suffice to say we are in the middle of a cost of living crisis, and the whole emphasis to date has been on trying to reduce costs of public services,” he said. He would not be drawn on whether the hikes should go ahead, but he said “we will see what we can do to try and ease pressure on people”.

“We’ll discuss it this evening, and as I say, there’s a cost of living crisis,” he said.

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“There are issues that Eamon (Ryan) has highlighted, in terms of the independent nature of TII, but we will see what we can do to try and ease pressure on people”

[ Eamon Ryan ‘reluctant’ to tackle toll increases if it comes at cost of other priorities ]

Motorists are to be hit with the highest-permitted toll charge hikes - of up to 60 per cent per journey - across the motorway network within weeks. The State-owned M50 will up its tolls by just over nine per cent while motorways built under public-private partnerships (PPP) have been allowed to bring in the maximum tolls under agreements with the State.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland said last week tolls are regulated through inflation and cannot go above inflation - but it said due to cost pressures driving that rate up across the year “toll rates across the national road network will increase in 2023″.

[ Varadkar ‘not happy’ with toll increases and wants them cut or delayed ]

Speaking on Monday morning, Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan said he would be “reluctant” to take money from road maintenance and other transport priorities to reduce or defer toll increases.

The Minister told RTÉ Radio 1′s Morning Ireland that private companies would be entitled to compensation if the Government intervened to stop expected increases.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said on Sunday that he would like to see new prices set to take effect on January 1st reduced or deferred.

[ Who runs Ireland’s road tolls and who gets the money? ]

Mr Varadkar, who will be Taoiseach when the planned increases come into effect, said he was “not happy” with the change and that he planned to speak to Mr Ryan, who has been “very busy” at Cop27, about the Government’s options.

Asked about acting to reduce or defer the charges, Mr Ryan told RTÉ: “If we did that we would have to compensate the private companies because they are entitled to it.