Government working with fuel operators to pass down price reductions to consumers

Vivienne Clarke

Minister of State for International Development, Neale Richmond, has said that the government will work with all fuel operators to make sure that price reductions are passed to consumers as soon as possible.

“What we are actually doing is addressing the very real cost caused by an energy crisis caused by the war in the Middle East in a manner that I would say is perhaps more ambitious than many other European countries,” he told Newstalk Breakfast.

Richmond defended the timing of the cut that will see excise duty on diesel cut by 20 cent and by 15 cent on petrol until the end of May.

“We're introducing these measures tonight at midnight. Pretty much every other EU country is initiating them this week as well.

"This is a conflict that has been rapidly evolving, that has had a huge, huge impact on global energy markets, and now is the responsible and sensible time to introduce measures that will benefit individuals, that will benefit motorists, that will benefit the most vulnerable, but is also backdated to make sure hauliers who help make the economy and the society go round will also get that relief.

Now was the responsible time to introduce this set of measures that was time-limited, but also “extremely generous”.

“To be honest, we would not have been able to go so far if we didn't have an economy that was in surplus and working so well. And people will feel this from midnight tonight, at their pumps, for their own car. The most vulnerable will get the most out of this, as is appropriate.”

When asked about comments by Fuels for Ireland chief executive Kevin McPartland, who said that it may take up to a week for the price cut to come through at the pump because of fuel already being pre-bought, Richmond responded that the Cabinet will meet this morning, where emergency measures will be passed and voted on in the Dáil this afternoon.

“From a legislative and policy point of view, it'll be effective from midnight. They were quick enough to increase the prices when the crisis happened.

“We'll work with them to make sure it is possible. The CCPC will have powers and responsibilities to make sure that these cuts are passed on to the consumer as quickly as possible.”

The government will reassess the situation at the end of May and will be “agile, flexible” and ready to pivot if necessary to ensure the Irish people are cared for in the face of “a very real global crisis of fuel, the like of which actually hasn't been seen in my lifetime.

“This is the sensible package. It's different from what certain other EU member states are doing. It's more ambitious. It gets to the people who need it the most, protecting both the society and the economy.”

It comes as Kevin McPartland, chief executive of Fuels for Ireland, cautioned that fuel prices will not be reduced overnight at all petrol stations.

“They will see it in some. As we've been telling people since this whole crisis emerged, the prices change based on when deliveries come in,” he told Newstalk’s Claire Byrne show.

“Anything which is on a forecourt at midnight tonight, the excise duty has already been paid. So that has to wash through the system.

"Now, in some stations, when prices were really increasing, we said that it happens within hours because some stations will have many deliveries a day. But you will have some stations that get deliveries every couple of days, and in a very small number of cases, even less frequently, might be a week.

“So we need to be realistic and say that it's essentially tanker trucks that leave terminals from midnight tonight will have the fuel that is at the reduced excise rate, and not every garage is going to get their delivery by breakfast time tomorrow morning.”

McPartland said fuel companies have carried 5.5 cent of the wholesale increase on petrol and 8.5 cent on diesel.

"“On the wholesale markets, the price of petrol has gone up 31 cent per litre since the 1st of March, and diesel has gone up 63.5 cent. What has actually been passed on to consumers in Ireland is a 25.5 cent increase on petrol and a 55 cent increase on diesel.”

Bigger garages are likely to see prices come down quicker as they receive deliveries more frequently, while some "smaller, independent, rural forecourts could have received a delivery on Monday(with excise) so they will not have reduced excise fuel for another week," he said.