Fuel excise cuts set to be extended until February as Government accused of postponing issue

Vivienne Clarke

Kevin McPartland of Fuels Ireland has repeated a call for more detailed examination of fuel taxation policies and other compliance costs put on fuel, rather than the current “ad hoc approach”.

“We should sit down and have a considered look at this,” he told Newstalk Breakfast with Anton Savage.

“That's not to suggest that we have to reduce the overall bill on fuel, I don't think that that's a realistic prospect at all, but what we need to look at is the policy that we are pursuing, or the policies that we're pursuing, best served by the fuel taxation regime and the other compliance costs that we put onto fuel.

“I am absolutely convinced that we're not doing a good job at the moment on that.”

Sinn Féin’s Finance Spokesperson Pearse Doherty said that it was “just not acceptable” for the government to consider putting off an increase in fuel costs until November or February.

“I think the public made it very clear that they weren't going to tolerate the government's decision to start increasing petrol and diesel by 34 cents and 29 cents starting on the 1st of September.

“But the fear here was that the government simply didn't understand or didn't really get it. And they were just going to kick the can down the road. And that's exactly now what we understand is going to happen this morning at the Cabinet meeting.

“The idea that they just put this off for a couple of months and then they start increasing the price of diesel by 34 cents come the 1st of November up to February, it's just not acceptable.”

Doherty said the government had attempted to “pull a stroke” with this “unprecedented move”.

“They tried to ensure that the increases started when the Dáil wasn't sitting, when there was no political pressure, no leader’s questions, no ministerial questions, thought they would get away with the first increase.

“But Sinn Féin and indeed the public had a different view that we weren't going to let them away with it because it's ordinary workers that would have had to carry this cost.”

Doherty added that there was “no way” that 34 cents should be put on the price of diesel, “whether it's now, whether it's next year, whether it's the year after.

“This is actually now what the government are planning to do is tax diesel more than ever in the history of the State. It's not just about reversing the cuts that happened last April.

“It's actually putting more tax than ever on it. There has to be a serious question about the government's policy.

"Their policy is that they want to increase the tax on petrol and diesel every year between now and 2030. I think that's daft. I think it's wrong.

“I think that experiment has really failed. All they're doing is making people across the State more poor as a result of it, making their lives more harder (sic), and particularly in the cost of that in crisis.

“The government should do the right thing, just keep them at the level that they are. If the prices decrease internationally, then of course there's an option to get some excise back on, not all of the excise, but some of the excise back on.”