Call for government to scrap M50 tolls

AS the government seeks to raise the tolls on the M50 on Januray 1, Aontú has escalated its ‘Scrap the Toll’ campaign.

From that date, Transport Infrastructure Ireland will charge an additional 10 cents on each toll for all categories of vehicles except unregistered motor cars without a tag or video account.

Heavy goods vehicles exceeding 10 tons holding a video account will have 20 cent added to their toll from January 1.

Protesting these increases, Aontú members will drape banners across M50 bridges to build support for scrapping the toll increases altogether.

Posting in X the party simply states: “The M50 toll bridges cost £53million to build. Drivers have paid over €2.5billion in tolls.”

According to the party’s leader, Peadar Tóibín, it is “difficult to avoid” the M50 as the main arterial route, and busiest road in the country.

In a statement, he claims the government has collected an “eye-watering” €2.2bn in M50 tolls since 2008. According to figures obtained by Aontú, road-users paid a “whopping” €212m on tolls last year alone, the party leader’s statement reads.

Mr Tóibín says these figures mean that motorists have paid “31 times” for two M50 bridges which were sold to the state for €600m in 2007.

“The M50 is a cash cow, and the government is milking it for all they can,” Peadar Tóibín said, “The purpose of the toll was to pay for the construction of the road so there is no excuse for it anymore.”

Calling the tolls “a tax on work” at a time when the cost of petrol and diesel continues to rise and when the country is in the “jaws of a cost-of-living crisis”, the Meath West TD said: “It’s a tax on commuters. It is a tax on the people who get up early in the morning.

“These are the people who are already paying through the nose for everything,” he said.

He also criticised how people are expected to pay tolls on a main road which has been “turned into a car park”.

“For much of the working week the M50 is a bumper-to-bumper traffic nightmare and the citizens of Ireland now have to pay more to sit in near stationary traffic,” Peadar Tóibín said.

“The government must apply the brake to fuel tax increases. The government must bin tolls, on roads that are bought and paid for. The government must significantly increase public transport capacity,” the Aontú leader demanded.