You may, or may not be aware that from the end of this month the infamous toll barriers on Dublin's M50 will be removed which should ease somewhat the chronic congestion that plagues the capital's ring road.

Works are also ongoing to add extra lanes to the motorway and to remove traffic lights from most of its major junctions. This is all good news you may suppose, but as is often the case in this great little country, there is a sting in the tail.

In the case of the M50 it is in the tolling, you see the barriers are being removed but the toll is not. In fact for the average Cork motorist who probably only uses the road a handful of times a year the cost of using it will go up.

They are introducing something called barrier-free tolling which basically takes a picture of your number plate as you drive along the road. There are now a multitude of tags you can buy to pre-pay your way, many of which can also be used at other tolls such as the Fermoy Bypass or you can register your number plate online for a reduced toll charge.

If you don't take up either of these options you'll receive a bill in the post and there will be swift and precipitous penalties for not paying up virtually immediately.

If you use a pre-paid tag it will cost you E2 for using the road, if you register your number plate it will cost €2.50 per trip and if you do nothing it will cost you €3 every time you use the M50. But that's not all, oh no. You will have to pay the NRA a €12 "administration fee" for the privilege of having a tag or registering. This will be deducted monthly from your account making it uneconomic for anybody who uses the road less than five times a year. So in that case you wont register but you will then be faced with penalties immediately if you don't pay by 8pm the following day.

So if you are driving to Dublin Airport for example and heading away for the week and you forget to pay before you leave, you could end up with a bill for €40 or €50 for using the road once. This is scandalous enough, they are in practice raising the toll charge for everybody, and penalising those who use the road infrequently but the real scandal is that we have already paid for this road THREE times.