Govt agrees cuts to excise duties on diesel and petrol

Government leaders have agreed on a 20 cent cut in excise duty on diesel and a 15 cent cut on petrol until the end of May.

Tánaiste Simon Harris has also recommended a diesel rebate scheme for hauliers and bus operators, which will be backdated.

The overall package which will also include targeted energy supports for pensioners, carers and people with disabilities is set to cost €235m.

In the first of a series of measures set to be announced tomorrow, RTÉ News also understands that the National Oil Reserves Agency (NORA) levy will be set aside for two months.

The levy is charged at two cent per litre on motoring fuel and home heating oil.

There will also be an excise reduction for agricultural or green diesel.

The price of petrol, diesel and home heating oil has increased substantially over the last two weeks.

Home heating oil rose from around €500 for 500 litres to close to €900 at the weekend.

Diesel prices rose from around €1.80 per litre to between €2.20 and €2.30 at the weekend. Petrol also rose steeply to around the €2 mark.

Labour's Spokesperson on Finance Ged Nash said the Government’s response is "shaping up to be timid and anaemic".

"Two weeks of additional fuel allowance payments and a small reduction on prices at the pump won’t cut it.

"This crisis is likely to go on for some time, and we should start by extending the Fuel Allowance period by a month, reducing public transport fares by at least 10% immediately and enabling more people to work from home," he said.

Sinn Féin said it is "disappointed that the Government chose not go further considering the pressure households and businesses are under".

A spokesperson said the Government "deliberately abandoned families dependent on home heating oil by refusing to remove the excise during time of crisis".

They added that the party will "seek to amend this proposal in the Dáil tomorrow to get the maximum support for workers and families".

Earlier, forecourt retailers said wholesale fuel prices will fall slightly from tomorrow.

The Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association (CSNA) said its members have been informed of a drop of around 8 cent in the price of diesel, and roughly 5.5 cent for petrol.

These anticipated drops are independent of any measures by the Government to help lower the price of fuel, and are instead due to falling oil prices on international markets.

In addition, the CSNA - which represents around 1,500 retailers including 300 filling stations - said wholesale home-heating oil and kerosene costs will fall by between 10 and 13 cent.

CSNA President Vincent Jennings welcomed the price reduction, however, warned it could take a few days to filter through to prices at pumps.

Mr Jennings said this is because any reduction will only apply to new supplies ordered from tomorrow, with existing fuel stock subject to previous wholesale prices.

Meanwhile, Andrew Brownlee, CEO of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), said the construction industry is "in the eye of the storm" when it comes to rising oil prices.

Speaking to RTÉ's Drivetime, he said materials like cement, concrete and steel are all produced from fuel intensive processes.

"Because we're a small island economy, transport and logistics play a very significant part of the cost of any product that our members are purchasing to deliver building activity," he said.

"So it's really exacerbating a situation where four or five of our members were already telling us that there were significant increases in raw material costs before these Iran attacks even began."

Mr Brownlee said costs are so volatile that it has almost become an "impossible task" to accurately price building activity, which he said is a worry.

Speaking on the same programme, the General Secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said many of its members who prove home care and care outside of the traditional hospital system would use their own vehicles.

Phil Ní Sheaghdha said there is a rebate system when mileage receipts are produced, but many members have said the cost of providing this care has "increased considerably".

"What we're going to look to the HSE to bring about is that they would look at maintaining the banding of these payments at the highest rate for the duration of the crisis. It makes sense," she said.

"All of these services are very essential, we cannot do without them," Ms Ní Sheaghdha added.

'No ordinary oil price spike', says ERSI

Muireann Lynch, a senior research officer with the ESRI, said we are in "non-normal times" and this is "no ordinary oil price spike".

She said the vast majority of oil is used in transport and the highest section of that is private car usage.

"So if you can do anything to reduce private car usage, that is the easiest way to reduce oil use straightaway. If somebody is getting public transport to work or is cycling or walking, that won't make any difference, but if somebody has a long commute in a private car, that could make a huge difference," she said.

"As a policy measure, I would say if somebody can work from home or if an employer can enable their employees to work from home, it really is very helpful in terms of just reducing that pressure on petrol and diesel."

Ms Lynch also said reducing vehicle speed by 10%, energy usage can be reduced by "a good bit more than 10%".

"Especially at those high speeds," she added. "So if you're driving in fifth gear at 80 kilometres and you drop down to 70 kilometres it's probably not going to make a huge difference, but if you're driving at 120 and you drop down to 110 or 100, that actually can make quite a significant difference.

"Anyone who has a gauge in their car on the dashboard would be able to see that, that once you get up to those higher speeds that actually does make a big difference. It's one that does surprise people."

Speaking in Walkinstown in Dublin earlier today, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the Government will include energy efficiency measures in tomorrow's package on fuel costs.

"We understand there's a lot of pressure from the increase in prices.

"But also, I've asked the Minister for Energy to work with his team in terms of really proactively looking at energy efficiency and developing a national energy efficiency programme, because that's something we're going to have to be proactively engaged in in the time ahead," he said.

He said moving away from fossil fuels is key to reducing the impact of the current crisis and future crises.

"If you go back over the last five, six, seven decades, there's always been, almost every decade now, a crisis in terms of fossil fuels, energy issues, the most recent being the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the energy crisis that arose from that.

"And so fossil fuels are volatile. And so to create greater security and stability for ourselves and economic security, we need to really double down on renewables.

"And we need people to facilitate us in terms of onshore wind, in terms of solar and in terms of the offshore wind agenda.

"That's why I established a clearinghouse at the beginning of government to try and accelerate offshore wind development in the country."

The Taoiseach said the Government will continue to work with the haulage industry to deal with the fuel cost crisis.

He said there is a need for more sustained engagement with the haulage industry in terms of "specifics and measures that would benefit, that would be sustainable in the long term, in terms of financial viability".

Mr O'Brien said he has been in ongoing contact with the Irish Road Haulage Association as the measures are being finalised.