In order to fund expansion along with infrastructure upgrades, the Dublin port in Ireland has proposed port fees review starting in 2026. The fees would rise over 40% for container charges, a move that hasn’t gone well with the shippers as an added tax on businesses within Ireland. The Dublin Port Company, which is the port’s owner, defends the increase, saying that the seaport is running very close to its capacity and has to make certain critical investments.
According to the CEO of Dublin Port Company, Barry O’Connell, being a self-financing entity, it is indeed needed to raise charges in order to cover the capital expenditures. The charges have remained flat for two decades, with just certain modest increases in the recent years.
O’Connell further said that the port had a small capital spend that happened between 2004 and 2021, and hence no fee review was taken up during the period. The yearly capital spend between 2015 and 2024 touched $75 million. But, this is forecasted to rise to $198 million for the period between 2025 and 2030, with an increase of almost 160%.
Apparently, the proposed port fees review plans a 5% rise to the base price of a 40 ft container by way of adding $2.13 to the present cost. For context, the present price is $44.74 when it comes to unaccompanied containers. Moreover, a new $17 infrastructure charge has also been added, thereby effectively raising the container charges by 46%. Hence, the overall charges per container are going to rise to almost $62 in 2026.
Due to these charges, Dublin Port is indeed hoping to raise more than $1 billion for infrastructure work, which is planned by the end of this decade. The port expansion is getting executed as per the Masterplan 2040. Some of the earmarked projects are the construction of a new container terminal having a capacity for 612,000 TEUs. There is another major project that reintegrates the port to Dublin City, which is the construction of a new access road as well as a bridge across the River Liffey, hence helping to decongest the truck traffic existing on the local roads.
However, the Irish Road Haulage Association remarked that the hike in the port fees is going to be disproportionately borne by the consumers at a time when the cost of living is already high. President of the Irish Road Haulage Association, Ger Hyland, says that it is an attack on every home in Ireland and is going to be seen in every shopping basket as well as every shopping trolley.
Interestingly, Dublin went on to report that it handled 35.2 million tons of cargo overall in 2024. The port has a large portion of RoRo volume, and besides this, it handled just more than 800,000 lift-off containers in 2025.
