Irish drivers overpaid tolls on nine of the country’s motorways and tunnels by more than €350,000 last year.
While change is always available in at least a toll booth, some drivers chose not to collect it or threw more money into the collection bucket than was needed.
Overpayments were highest on the M1 motorway connecting Dublin to Belfast, with €99,000 in excess tolls collected.
Next highest was the Limerick Tunnel beneath the Shannon where €50,000 was paid by motorists above what was required.
There were also €49,000 in overpayments on the N6 route to Galway and €40,000 of excess tolls on the M7 and M8 connecting Dublin to Limerick and Cork.
The €355,000 in total overpayments was, however, outstripped by €423,000 in unpaid tolls registered across the motorway network.
Figures from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) also reveal how the M50 was by far the most lucrative toll road in the state in 2024.
Tolls collected on the notoriously busy ring road around Dublin amounted to €212 million with a “bad debt” charge of €6.1m.
TII said more than two-thirds of motorists using the M50 paid by electronic toll or tag while 16.3% were signed up for video payment.
A similar proportion of motorists – 15.6% in total – were unregistered meaning they had to manually pay each time they crossed the West-Link Bridge.
The next highest revenue road was the M1 where €50m in tolls were collected, mostly by card or electronic tagging, with just 15.5% opting for cash payments.
Revenue on the Dublin Port Tunnel was €32m despite tolls being set at a level designed to discourage use by private motorists during peak times.
A further €29.3mn was collected on the Limerick Tunnel while tolls of €46.9m were paid at the M4 toll booth in Co Kildare.
Across nine tolled roads and tunnels, revenue was €266m, which along with M50 revenue added up to €478m in income.
TII said that revenues on most routes incurred VAT charges but that these did not apply on the M50 or the Dublin Port Tunnel.
They said they would not provide a breakdown on which roads were responsible for most of the €423,000 in unpaid tolls.
It said this could impair its efforts to combat non-payment or the enforcement of the law.
Asked about the pursuit of people who did not pay tolls, a spokesman for Transport Infrastructure Ireland said it was only fair to take all steps to seek repayment.
He said: “The primary purpose of a tolling penalty system is to encourage a change of behaviour for those who do not pay their toll and maintain a level of fairness for the over 97% of road users who do pay their toll.”
Reporting by Ken Foxe
