Entrance to the Limerick tunnel as it was announced profits rose in 2023
Operating profits at the consortium which operates the €800m Limerick toll tunnel last year increased by 23pc to €10.86m after a hike in toll charges.
New accounts show that DirectRoute (Limerick) Ltd last year enjoyed the operating profit surge as revenues went up by 10pc from €24.67m to €27.19m.
Toll charges for cars increased by 10c to €2.10 in inflation-linked toll increases on July 1 last year and they have since increased by another 20pc at the start of this year to €2.30 – again linked to inflation – which will lead to even higher toll revenues for this year.
Last year the hike in toll charge at DirectRoute (Limerick) Ltd contributed to toll income rising by 19pc from €17.86m to €21.2m.
Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) initially announced that the toll increase for the Limerick tunnel and other tolled routes would come into effect from January 1 last year.
However, this was deferred six months by the Government against the background of cost-of-living increases.
In their joint accompanying statement to the TII annual report, TII chairman Gareth Llewellyn and chief executive Peter Walsh stated that the cost of deferral concerning all tolled routes was €14.6m and “was met from general taxation”.
The revenues for the Limerick tunnel firm also included traffic guarantee payments from TII which declined from €5.98m to €5.2m last year.
Traffic guarantee payments are made when daily traffic volumes don’t exceed a particular threshold and they were put in place at the outset of the project in order to attract consortia to bid to build the scheme.
DirectRoute’s directors state that “revenue risk is reduced by the traffic guarantee mechanism which guarantees revenue to a certain threshold”.
The company recorded a pre-tax loss of €13.3m after paying out €23.8m in loan interest payments. The directors state that “the largest expense remains to be interest repayments on the project funding mainly in the form of bank loans and bonds. The contract is currently in year 17 of its term and will expire in 2041”.
This loss also takes account of non-cash depreciation of €13.48m.
Total key management compensation last year increased from €412,130 to €440,151.
The Limerick tunnel route was first opened to traffic in July 2010.
At the end of the concession period in 2041, the firm will hand back the road to the TII.