According to new accounts, DirectRoute (Limerick) Ltd experienced this surge in operating profit as revenues grew by 10 percent, from €24.67 million to €27.19 million.

On July 1st, 2023, toll charges for cars were raised by 10 percent to €2.10, in line with inflation. These charges increased again by 20 percent at the start of 2024 to €2.30, which is expected to further boost toll revenues this year.

In 2023, the toll increase at DirectRoute (Limerick) Ltd led to a 19 percent rise in toll income, from €17.86 million to €21.2 million.

Initially, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) announced that the toll increase for the Limerick tunnel and other tolled routes would take effect on January 1st, 2023. However, the Government postponed this increase by six months in late 2022 due to rising living costs.

In their joint statement accompanying TII’s annual report, Chairman Gareth Llewellyn and Chief Executive Peter Walsh noted that the cost of deferring toll increases across all tolled routes in 2023 was €14.6 million, which was covered by general taxation.

The Limerick tunnel firm’s revenues also included traffic guarantee payments from TII, which decreased from €5.98 million to €5.2 million last year.

These traffic guarantee payments are made when daily traffic volumes fall below a certain threshold and were implemented at the start of the project to attract consortia to bid for the scheme. The directors stated that “revenue risk is reduced by the Traffic Guarantee mechanism, which guarantees revenue up to a certain threshold.” The company posted a pre-tax loss of €13.3 million after paying €23.8 million in loan interest.

The directors noted that “the largest expense remains interest repayments on project funding, primarily in the form of bank loans and bonds. The contract is currently in year 17 of its term and will expire in 2041.” The loss also reflects non-cash depreciation of €13.48 million. Total key management compensation increased from €412,130 to €440,151 last year.

The Limerick tunnel opened to traffic in July 2010. At the end of the concession period in 2041, the firm will hand back the road to TII.

The firm had accumulated losses of €116 million by the end of last year, although its cash reserves increased from €24.28 million to €30 million.