State paid the M3 toll operators €6m because not enough vehicles used it

O’Rourke blasts Government over 'gold-plated' PPP contract

The tax payer has paid a whopping €6million to the operators of the M3 tolls in just two years, due to lower-than-expected car numbers.

Figures from Transport Infrastructure Ireland show that the taxpayer has forked out €6,207,477 in so-called traffic guarantee payments for the M3 motorway in just 24 months.

Because not enough cars used the road in 2020 and 2021, the taxpayer has been forced to compensate the private toll road company.

The company received €2,695,495 from the Government in 2020 and €3,605,888 for 2021.

Deputy Darren O’Rourke has hit out at these figures, which he received as a result of a Dail question to Minister Eamon Ryan.

“The gold-plated PPP contract that permit these very generous traffic guarantee payments, are a legacy of bad economic policy choices and decisions made by successive Fianna Fáil-led administrations in the early 2000s.

“These traffic guarantee clauses are also now in direct conflict with the ambition to reduce the number of car kilometres travelled on our roads and the desire to get more people onto public transport to help reduce emissions.

“In Meath we hope to have the train line re-established within the decade, which will take thousands more cars off the M3 motorway.

“The M3 toll contract doesn’t expire until 2052, so we can expect these payments to increase significantly over the next few decades as people move to more sustainable modes of transport and leave their cars at home.

“Between the M3 and the Limerick Tunnel, the taxpayer will be left with a bill of hundreds of millions of euro as a result. It’s hard to understand how any government would have signed up to such agreements.

“The toll road contracts represent poor planning, a total lack of foresight and dreadful value for money for the taxpayer,” he said.

Over the same period the taxpayer faced a bill of €26,197,206 for the Limerick Tunnel. Meanwhile, the Government moved two weeks ago to defer an increase in road tolls for six months. Tolls at the two M3 plazas in Meath had been expected to increase by 10c for cars, while the toll on the M4 was to rise by 20c and on the M1 by 10c.

TII had plans to increase tolls on the M50 and East Link bridges and had given the go ahead to the Public Private Partnership operators of the State's other tolls to increase the tolls by the highest price rises allowed. Following a public outcry, the increases were deferred for six months.