Transport Infrastructure Ireland announced a road toll rise in the Republic of Ireland to the maximum level from 2023 last week as a result of an 8.6% inflation rate between August 2021 and August 2022.
According to the math done by the Irish Examiner, for large goods vehicles, prices will increase from €3.50 to €3.80, for HGVs, road tolls will hike from €4.90 to €5.40 and €6.30 to €6.80 per journey, depending on the number of axles. This is a 10% increase for LGVs and nearly 8% rise for HGVs.
However, in an interview on RTÉ Radio 1’s This Week programme, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that the government hadn’t been aware of the planned increase and that he is “not happy” with the “unwelcome” increases.
He added that there had been no increase for nine years and he thinks “it’s coming in a really bad time with petrol and diesel prices being really high.”
Transport Infrastructure Ireland is not obliged to rise the road toll to the maximum level, he said. Therefore, Varadkar wants to sit down with Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan, “to see if it’s possible to either reduce the increase or defer it for a period of time”.
Photo credits @ Can Pac Swire under CC BY-NC 2.0