How much does a new driveway cost in Dublin?

Guide prices for a new driveway start at €45 per square metre for gravel, on the HomePros guide (August 2026), which covers the whole country. Delaney Tarmac's own prices in Dublin are €50 to €95 per square metre for tarmac and up to €250 for resin bound, all-in. Delaney prices every drive after seeing it, because the dig-out and the base often move a quote more than the surface on top.

Tar and chip has no figure in that guide, so it is priced from the visit. On a tight budget, gravel is the lowest figure here, and the cheapest driveway options come down to the ground and the base under them.

What moves the price of a Dublin driveway

1. The ground and the dig-out

As general practice, a drive needs 150 to 200mm of compacted hardcore on sound ground and 250 to 300mm on soft ground. Boulder clay is common around Dublin, and it can push a job towards the deeper figure. Paul Delaney is blunt about why this is the last place to save:

"The base is everything. If the sub-base is wrong, the whole thing fails inside three years."

Paul Delaney, Delaney Tarmac

2. The size and the access

Larger drives work out cheaper per square metre, because the cost of bringing a crew and machines to the house is spread over more ground. A narrow side entrance or a tight terraced frontage slows the work and can rule out a full-size paver.

3. The surface you choose

Delaney's machine-laid tarmac driveways go down as a binder course and an SMA wearing course, so you are paying for two layers. Resin is trowelled by hand from Vuba resin and aggregate, and some blends cost more than others. Whether your existing base can stay is the biggest swing in what a resin driveway costs.

4. The edge

A concrete kerb is the plainest edge. A granite border or a band of setts costs more and is priced by the metre, so a long frontage or a curved line adds up quickly.

5. Where the rain goes

Tarmac and standard block paving are not permeable, so the falls have to carry water onto your own ground, and some drives need a channel drain. Resin bound laid on a permeable base drains through its surface. The water also decides whether a driveway needs planning permission.

A worked budget for a 50 square metre drive

• Resin bound replacing a sound tarmac drive, with concrete edging: €7,500 to €9,500 at Delaney's Dublin price.
• Resin bound with full excavation, a new sub-base, a granite sett kerb and one inlay: €11,500 to €13,500.
• Tarmac, all-in: €2,500 to €4,750 at Delaney's price.

To budget a drive of your own, measure its length and width, multiply them for the area, and multiply that by the range for your surface. Treat the answer as a starting point until someone has seen the ground. Every Delaney job carries a five-year workmanship guarantee.