Maybe hold off on filling up your car this evening.
The Government is set to approve plans to cut excise duty on fuel in a bid to curb rising prices across the country.
As reported by RTÉ News, the changes could come into effect as early as midnight on Wednesday (9 March) if the Dáil passes the resolution.
The increase in inflation has been linked with the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Oil prices have spiked worldwide to $139 a barrel, the highest rate in 14 years.
“Government is acutely aware of this issue,” Taoiseach Micheál Martin said in the Dáil on Tuesday (8 March).
“We don’t argue that the changes on people are sustainable at the rate that they are occuring, because Russia’s role in energy supplies will have significant impact on prices, with implications for inflation and production costs.”
Plans to cut the excise duty on fuel have been considered since last week, when prices shot up to as much as €2 in filling stations nationwide.
Tanáiste Leo Varadkar expressed concern for the rising cost of energy prices in the Dáil last week.
“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 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. Government will respond.”
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