It comes as fuel prices have risen “very significantly” due to the war in Ukraine.
The Government is set to consider a reduction in excise duty on fuel in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has suggested.
The Tánaiste was speaking in the Dáil as part of Leaders’ Questions after Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh quizzed him on plans to help alleviate the impact economic sanctions against Russia are going to have on the Irish public.
“Undoubtedly, those severe sanctions are going to impact on ordinary citizens right across Europe and further afield too,” she said.
“The price of oil and gas on international markets is on the rise once again and this follows massive price rises already which are already putting huge pressure on households throughout this state and contributing to the massive increase in the cost of living.”
She said this was particularly the case in the west of Ireland in counties with a lack of public transport and where many homes use heating oil as their main home heating fuel.
“What is on the table to help households here and across Europe in negating the worst impacts of energy price increases on workers and families?” she asked Varadkar.
In response, the Tánaiste said there would be a meeting on Thursday afternoon involving senior ministers in which there will be a discussion on what the Government “may need to do or be able to do” to help households, businesses and farmers who will be affected by the economic disruption caused by the crisis in Ukraine.
He said that though Ireland does not have a lot of direct trade with Belarus, Russia or Ukraine, there will be “indirect effects”.
“So even though the coal in Moneypoint now comes from Colombia, not from Russia, even though our gas supplies don’t come from Russia, the impact of Russian gas being slowed or potentially even being shut potentially will cause price rises,” he explained.
“It already is. We’ve seen the price of oil and petrol and diesel and fertiliser rise very significantly in the last couple of weeks.
“Everyone driving by the forecourt this morning will have seen the price of petrol and the price of diesel, that psychological €2 euros per litre being seen in some stations at the moment,” he later added.
“We’ve already seen increases in our gas bills and our electricity bills and unfortunately, because of the events in Ukraine, we’re likely to see further rises over the next couple of weeks. So Government will respond.”
Varadkar told the Dáil that the Government needs to implement the actions it has already announced, including the €200 to be deducted from electricity bills, which he said people would see “certainly by the end of April”.
This was before adding that the Government will have to give consideration to any further actions it may take.
“We do need to bear in mind that the underlying cost of energy, of coal, of petrol or diesel, of aviation fuel, of home heating oil isn’t something that we control,” he said.
“And that’s rising more and more and more and a portion of which is taxation is actually falling as a consequence – not the raw amount but the proportion of which is taxation is actually falling.
“So, we’re going to see what we can do in that context.
“There will be some coordination at European level as well and those discussions are underway.”
In regards ways the Government could respond to rising fuel prices, Varadkar said:
“We need to look at excise I think in particular to see if we might do something there.”
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