M3-motorway toll increase threatens businesses

The latest increase in M3 motorway tolls has left commuters and businesses alike upset. They question not only the necessity of the rise, but also feel unfairly penalised for having to use this particular route while not seeing any improvements.

“It will be costing us a lot more, it’s hard to make profit,” says Sean Brady, Business and System Analyst for Virginia Transport in Maghera. He predicts that it will have an impact on the longevity of not only their transport business, but many SMEs all over the country affected by the toll increase.

Road tax, carbon tax as well as petrol and diesel costs already contribute to Ireland having the “highest costs of road transport in Europe”, he says.

Mr Brady’s colleagues at the Irish Road Haulage Associated (IRHA) are just as frustrated. They feel that the political decision makers didn’t listen.

“It’s disappointing,” says Mr Brady, “because [Minister of Transport] Darragh O’Brien had told us last year there would be no increase and he went back on his promise.”

Ireland has 10 toll roads in the national road network, eight of which operate under the public-private partnership model. PPP schemes finance, operate and maintain in exchange for user tolls for a certain amount of time. Then ownership switches to the State.

Built in the early 2000s, the 51 kilometer long M3 road created a better connectivity of Cavan to Dublin - bypassing Kells and Navan. It was built at a cost of nearly €1billion. According to State records, the cost of PPP payments towards this project was €706,4 million, financed by Eurolink Motorway Operations (M3) Ltd. The contract commenced on the April 27, 2007, and extends for 45 years.

The first tolls in 2009 were €1.40- collecting €2.80 on the two toll plazas between Kells and Dunshaughlin. This increased to €1.50 a toll in 2022 and has increased by 10 cent per toll every year since.

From January 1 this year, the toll prices were brought up an additional 10 cent to €1.80 for a motor car- making it a total of €7 a day for a round-trip or €35 in a working week or over €1,600 in a working year.

Goods vehicles now pay €4.40 per toll or €17.60 for each round trip.

Virginia Transport has up to 120 lorries on the road every day, completing four round trips a day to Dublin, thus passing the toll plazas 16 times.

At the lower level, that now equates to over €7,000 every working day on tolls.

“That is, if we don’t include the M50,” adds Seán.

‘A very expensive route’

Detouring from the main road has not proven to be effective in reducing costs, Mr Brady explains: “The repair and maintenance is higher travelling the backroads.”

Together with customers the local firm has tried to reconfigure routes, but essentially there is not much wriggle room.

“It’s a tricky one for us,” admits Mr Brady.

In 2024, the turnover for the company amounted €13.7 million, €2.3 million less than the year before. The operating profits generated as a result were over €380,000 per week from the route last year.

Noting that the M3 Motorway is a “very expensive route already”, Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy is annoyed with the latest toll hike.

“People from Monaghan and Cavan periphery have no choice but to use the car. They are already paying road tax and carbon tax and are facing additional tolls.”

He is opposed to the idea that private companies benefit from commuters, while the roads in their own counties remain in a “deplorable state”.

Similarly, Mr Brady mentions: “The biggest frustration is that we pay the toll, but the service stays the same, the traffic is the same, there is still congestion.”

He highlights too the Virginia bypass as an example of failed progress.

Calling it a “substantial additional tax on people”, the M3-tolls should not have been increased, says Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith.

“Unfortunately, it was not a decision of the government or the Minister of Transport.”

However, Deputy Smih believes there should be an “effort at government level to buy back that stretch so that people who have to travel to work don’t face additional fees every day. That is not sustainable”.

He vows to raise the question with the Minister in the Dáil of buying out the tolling rights in the near future.