The National Roads Authority (NRA) has rejected criticism of its plans to increase toll charges for many motorists using the M50 when barrier-free tolling is introduced next year.
The NRA will earn €80 million a year from barrier-free tolling, although the system will cost just €25 million to operate, an oral hearing into objections to its proposed charges heard yesterday.
This indicates the NRA will recoup the €488 million cost of buying the West-Link bridge on the M50 from National Toll Roads in less than a decade.
Six parties at the hearing, including the National Consumer Agency (NCA), Fine Gael TD Leo Varadkar, and representatives of haulier and car rental firms, opposed the plan. Car drivers will have to pay up to €3 per trip under barrier-free tolling, compared to the current toll of €1.90.
The NRA hopes most motorists will buy an electronic tag to monitor usage and enable charges to be debited from their account, but the NCA says this involves significant hidden charges for consumers. A numberplate recognition system is also being used.
While the hearing's inspector, chartered engineer Maurice O'Connell, can vary the charges proposed by the NRA, its lawyers told the hearing that Mr O'Connell did not have the power to regulate the charges levied by companies providing electronic tags.
NCA chief executive Ann Fitzgerald said this was a serious problem as tag providers imposed significant hidden charges in the form of monthly administrative fees, minimum top-up charges and minimum top-up thresholds. Motorists who did not pre-register would have only 12 hours to pay the toll or face a €3 penalty, she said. This would rise to €40 and then to €140 after further, as yet unprescribed, periods.
For the NRA, Hugh Creegan responded by saying there were lots of options for consumers to choose between different tag providers if they shopped around.
Fine Gael TD Leo Varadkar said Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey had promised a discount for motorists who used tags, but this was not happening.
Mr Varadkar called for an extension of the 12-hour deadline for late payment to three or seven days and said there should be exemptions for school buses and car pooling arrangements. He said there were serious questions about requirements for customers to top up their accounts by up to €40.
The Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) called for toll-free access for truck drivers on the M50 between 7am and 7pm, when the HGV management strategy operates in Dublin city, because there was no toll-free alternative for trucks during these times.
Jimmy Quinn, IRHA president, predicted that collecting tolls would be a nightmare because so many foreign-registered cars on the roads would evade paying.
However, Mr Creegan said barrier-free tolling was good for hauliers as the delays associated with the West-Link would end. A journey from Dublin Port to the N7 via the Red Cow junction would take 20 to 25 minutes, compared to over an hour without the Dublin Port Tunnel and barrier-free tolling.
Robert Prole, chairman of the Car Rental Council of Ireland, said his members were concerned about the cost of recouping small amounts of money from people who rented cars and returned home overseas.
Many of the 23,000 rental cars were not owned by the rental companies, so delays in notifying drivers of liabilities for tolls could lead to penalty charges.
Mr Creegan said the administrative charge was neither excessive nor cumbersome. Rental firms already had mechanisms to recoup additional charges from customers.
Damien Cassidy of the National Conservation and Heritage Group said the principle of tolling roads in a small country like Ireland was "wrong, uneconomic and served to discourage tourism and freedom".
