Congestion and the Government’s decision to increase tolls have turned the M50 into a “commuter hell”, Aontú has argued.
Tolls for the motorway increased by 10c at the start of the year and new data suggests it has not cut congestion, as some had hoped.
Instead, the figures published by Geotab found that, in comparison to January 2025, drivers now spend three extra minutes on average on the road.
However, the data also found significant variation - with those drivers who travel on Tuesday evenings spending an average of 23 minutes longer on the road than they did last year.
On The Claire Byrne Show, Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín described the figures as “absolutely extraordinary”.
“We're talking about 70 minutes now to travel from one end of the M50 to another on a Wednesday morning - an increase of 20 minutes from last year,” he said.
“Really, what's happening at the moment is there's hundreds of thousands of people living in a commuter belt, which is now in effect a commuter hell.
“It's taking them three to four hours in a return journey to get to work every single day.”
Queues of traffic at the West-Link Toll Bridge. Picture by: RollingNews.Deputy Tóibín added that this has “enormous consequences” for commuters, their families, social lives and finances.
“At the same time, the Government is jacking up the cost of tolls for the pleasure of sitting in traffic for an hour on the M50 every single day,” he said.
“And they're actually putting up the cost of fuel excise and VAT on fuel; last year, it was €4.1 billion they collected.
“So, commuters are getting hit both ways; they're getting hits in terms of excruciating commutes, but they're also getting hit in the pockets by the Government in relation to this.”
Despite the commuter chaos, the Meath West TD continued that most motorists have “no alternative” but to drive as the public transport system remains “really poor”.
“On a particular day last week there were nine buses from Navan to Dublin cancelled in the first half of the day,” he said.
“People have been crying out for a rail line from Navan to Dublin for the last 42 years and it's still only in planning stages.
“So, we're caught between a rock and a hard place as commuters.”
'A cash cow'
Deputy Tóibín urged the Government to consider whether toll increases are appropriate given the infrastructure has already been paid for.
“The toll company, the public-private partnership that built the [M50 bridges], covered the whole cost of those bridges in just one year's collections of tolls,” he said.
“They continued to collect for another six years after that; they then sold it to the Government for €600 million and then the Government has collected €2.2 billion of M50 tolls since 2008.
“So, you know it's a cash cow in real terms for the Government, the Government are milking this cash cow for all they can get.”
Transport Infrastructure Ireland said toll revenue is used for the maintenance of the motorway, as well as to pay off public-private partnerships loans.
Main image: Peadar Toibín and a driverpaying a toll. Pictures by Rolling News and Alamy.com.
