State to pay toll road operators €93m

More than €93m will be paid out to public-private-partnerships which built and operate the country’s motorway network in 2013.

The National Roads Authority has revealed that annual payments to consortia operating the PPPs will include payments of up to €8m in compensation for low traffic volumes.

NRA chief executive Fred Barry told the Oireachtas transport committee yesterday that most of the funding for such payments came from the exchequer, despite the fact that tolls on the motorway network raise about €100m each year.

A report by a public spending watchdog has indicated that the Government will have to pay compensation for low traffic levels to the operators of the Limerick Tunnel until 2041 and Clonee-Kells M3 motorway until 2025.

The NRA paid both operators €5.2m last year due to traffic on both motorways failing to reach agreed target levels, with the figure set to rise to €6.7m in 2012 and up to €8m next year.

The NRA’s annual budget has fallen from about €2bn at the height of the boom to about €800m last year, with Mr Barry indicating there were unlikely to be any major “or indeed minor” new road projects over the next few years, except those already approved, due to a lack of funding.

The committee heard the funding method for the new interchange at Dunkettle, Co Cork, has yet to be decided. However, the costs to date had been sourced from the exchequer.

The NRA said the cost of the new bypass of Listowel, Co Kerry, which is going through the planning process, will be about €40m.