The new M11 service station at Ballyellen, Gorey.

It has emerged the new motorway service station on the Mll north of Gorey has cost the taxpayer in the region of €200,000 over the past 15 months on security and electricity.

A security guard is on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at the new state-of-the-art facility which has remained unopened since it was built by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) in 2015.

Initially it had been expected that Gorey would be open by the summer of 2014.

TII said the work finished on the Gorey station at Ballyellen in May 2015 and Topaz was chosen as the successful bidder to operate it and two other stations at Kilcullen, Co. Kildare, and Moate, Co. Westmeath.

The Gorey building was estimated to take six months to complete and be the first of three to go operational.

However, the award tender was contested in the Commercial Court by the SuperStop2 consortium, involving Applegreen and Tedcastles Oil Products.

The case has been heard and a decision is pending.

TII has confined the cost of providing security at the three sites is €12,394 a month which covers the cost of a security guard around the clock at Gorey.

The TII is also paying electricity charges for a building and car parking at Gorey, which is costing a further €3,400 a month.