€370k a week profits for M3

The operators of one of the most controversial road schemes ever built in the country generated over €370,000 per week in operating profits from the route last year.

Figures show the M3 motorway generated €19.25m in operating profits for its private operator, Eurolink Motorway Operation (M3) Ltd.

The documents lodged with the Companies Office show that the firm recorded the operating profit of €19.25m in 2013 after recording an operating profit of €30.2m in 2012. In total, the firm recorded €29.5m or €80,843 per day in revenues in 2013. The revenues recorded last year represent a major slump on the €39.88m recorded in revenues in 2012. However, daily traffic volumes increased by 2.35% on the route last year to 23,000 vehicles — the firm’s revenues are made up of road tolls and operational payments from the National Roads Authority (NRA).

The road tolls are generated by a €1.40 charge to motorists at each of the two toll plazas on the route.

The payments from the NRA include traffic guarantee payments that are paid if sufficient volumes of motorists don’t use the tolled route. The guarantee was put in place due to the high cost of the route.

A recent Department of Transport memo confirmed that just under €3m was paid in traffic guarantee payments to the M3 firm last year. The 51km M3 that runs from Clonee to north of Kells was built at a cost of almost €1bn. The scheme was the largest infrastructure scheme delivered through a public-private partnership at the time. The controversial motorway, which was the subject of a series of protests as it runs near the Hill of Tara, bypasses Dunshaughlin, Navan, and Kells.

The company is jointly owned by Irish firm, Siac Construction and a subsidiary of Spanish company, Ferrovial. The company last year approved a dividend of €2m from the route to the firm’s shareholders and this followed a dividend of €7m in 2012.

The figures show that the firm’s pre-tax profits more than halved from €17.6m to €8.27m. The significant difference between operating and pre-tax profits arose from the firm paying €11.1m in bank interest payments to finance the loans used to construct the route.

The consortium had bank loans totalling €198m at the end of last year. The profit also takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €6.8m.