Budget 2027: Government to keep fuel excise cuts for Winter

Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris has said the Government will excise cuts on petrol and diesel for the winter.

A range of measures on the cost of energy is expected to include a €5 increase to the weekly Fuel Allowance, amounting to an extra €160 over the course of the winter months.

Speaking in the Dáil during Leaders' Questions, Simon Harris said that "certainly for the winter period, on excise is something that we can do and something that we will do."

It's expected the cut to excise duty will be extended until late February or early March.

The reductions, which were first introduced in April, were set to end in November.

Mr Harris also hinted at a potential cut on the carbon tax on home heating oil.

He told the Dáil how he was "looking at the issue of carbon taxation in terms of how it applies to certain products".

"I'm particularly concerned around the home heating situation and the gas situation".

An increase in the fuel allowance is also expected, with assistance for "sectors within our economy that are most at risk of fuel poverty or most dependent on fuel".

The government are keen to emphasise that costs have risen due to conflict in international shipping routes, pushing up the price of petrol, diesel, wholesale gas prices and kerosene.

About 700,000 homes depend on kerosene to heat their homes. The cost of home-heating oil has increased by 44% over the past year, or by about €540 more to fill a 1,000 litre tank.

Harris noted today in the Dail that the global geopolitical situation was behind "the greatest energy shock in the history of the globe".

"I know you like to blame me for everything, but the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is a stretch," Mr Harris told Sinn Fein's Pearse Doherty during the debate.

Meanwhile, the Taoiseach said in New York that people must look at "the Budget in the round, in terms of income tax reductions, it terms of the childcare package, in terms of the cost of disability”.

“All of those will help to reduce pressure on families and workers,” he said.

“There will also be a public pay deal which will be of assistance to those who work in the public service.”